UPDATE (1 August – 11:53 PM): As it turns out, you can use the free ePENJANA credit for pretty much everything including online purchases even though the PENJANA booklet said otherwise. Check out our follow up report right here.
ORIGINAL STORY (21 July – 7:56 PM):
Even though the government has yet to reveal in-depth details regarding the distribution of the free RM 50 e-wallet credit under the ePENJANA program, Boost has put up FAQ document that covers certain aspects of the program.
One of them includes the usage aspect of the free RM 50 credit. Aside from online purchases which is something the government has pointed out early on in its PENJANA booklet [pdf], it turns out that you are also not able to utilize the free credit for a lot of other things as well.
Here is the list, reproduced in full from the FAQ:
– Online/internet-based purchases
– Tolls
– In-app based services (e.g: movies, Lazada, flights, etc)
– Bill and utility payments
– Telecommunication payments (postpaid and prepaid payments)
– Taxis & Ride-Hailing
– Any government services
The way we see it, the inability to use the credit for ride-hailing and in-app services could have a major impact on GrabPay and Grab Food. Such restrictions were not there during the previous E-Tunai Rakyat program.
We do wonder if this factor could be detrimental enough for Grab to not become one of the official e-wallet partners for ePENJANA. Then again, Grab has recently announced that more physical partners are now able to accept GrabPay and has namedropped PENJANA in its announcement.
Of course, it is also quite likely they are just better at keeping secrets. Nevertheless, with only 10 days left before we move on to August, the time has indeed come for the government to provide clarifications regarding its ePENJANA program. We’ll keep you updated once that happens.
