As part of the Program Strategik Memperkasa Rakyat dan Ekonomi (PEMERKASA) announcement earlier today, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin stated that the telco credit for B40 citizens under the Program Jaringan Prihatin will be launched in May.
Program Jaringan Prihatin was originally announced during the tabling of Belanjawan 2021 by the Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz last November. Around a month later, Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said that the program would take place in March 2021.
The RM 180 telco credit is generally meant to help reduce the cost of an Internet subscription or a new smart device. The announcement by PM Muhyiddin today means that the distribution of the telco credit has been delayed for another two months.
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However, the government has added a new element into the program by increasing the credit to RM 300 specifically for households with school children. Hence, it is not surprising that PM Muhyiddin has said that the allocation for the Program Jaringan Prihatin has now been increased to RM 2 billion.
In the same speech, he has also unveiled the new MyBAIKHATI program which is an initiative to crowdsource used PC and smart devices that can be refurbished for the usage for Pusat Internet Komuniti and related community organizations. Further details regarding this particular program were not revealed by PM Muhyiddin though.
(Source: PM Muhyiddin / RTM live feed.)
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