The Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Saifuddin Abdullah today has revealed that Program Jaringan Prihatin is expected to start in March 2021. This is in-line with the previous Belanjawan 2021 announcement by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz who stated that the initiative is scheduled to take place within the first quarter of 2021.
Under the program which has received a budget of RM 1.5 billion from the government, citizens within the B40 category will be able to obtain telco credits worth RM 180. They can choose to utilize it to help offset the cost of their Internet subscription or a new smart device.
In the same announcement, Minister Saifuddin has also stated that the free 1GB data provision under Pelan Jana Semula Ekonomi Negara (PENJANA) which has been going on since June 2020 will continue to be available until the B40 telco credit be made available to eligible citizens.
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Originally, the free data allocation was supposed to end on 31 December 2020. However, the minister didn’t clarify if the extended provision came from the telco companies that have committed to match up the allocation provided for Program Jaringan Digital with RM 1.5 billion worth of free data.
Nevertheless, expect further announcements from telcos and related government agencies regarding both initiatives coming your way very soon.
(Source: Saifuddin Abdullah @ Twitter./ Main image: Silvie Lindemann @ Pexels.)
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