FELDA has clarified why some settlers did not qualify for its special RM5,000 incentive, which had been promised by the end of August.

The agency’s chairman Shahrir Samad said settlers must meet two requirements to qualify.

They must either be those whose holdings are wholly managed by Felda or those who have consistently sent their harvests to Felda from January to June this year, Shahrir said in a statement.

The agency was responding to a report by The Malaysian Insight yesterday, which quoted two settlers from Jengka, Pahang, who claimed to have not received the incentive.

Mohamad Tarmizi of the Jengka 10 settlement and Jali Sulong of Jengka 12, told The Malaysian Insight that they did not receive the special incentives despite it being announced in late July.

Although he did not explicitly name the settler, Shahrir explained why Jali did not qualify for the special incentive.

Jali did not directly send his palm oil harvest to Felda from January to June this year, Shahrir said.

“However, he has signed a letter saying that he will cooperate again. If he continuously sends his harvests directly to Felda for six months, he will qualify to receive the incentive in February 2018.”

Meanwhile, Mohamad Tarmizi’s mother was given the special incentive on Tuesday, Shahrir said. Tarmizi is a second-generation settler.

The RM5,000 special incentive is part of a package that was announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak in late July to ease the burdens faced by Felda settlers.

Felda settlements in the nationwide land-development scheme are spread out in 54 parliamentary seats. The 112,000 settler families have traditionally supported the ruling Barisan Nasional.

Along with the RM5,000 incentive, Najib announced various schemes to write off the settlers’ debts such as a RM300 million grant to write off loans that settlers took to replant their holdings.

In his statement today, Shahrir also said that as of Tuesday, 83% of 8,750 settlers spread throughout Jengka’s settlements have received the RM5,000 incentive.

Some 355 of 370 settlers in Jengka 10, and 274 of 342 them in Jengka 12 have received the incentive, Shahrir said.

He added that 79,093 settlers throughout Malaysia have received the special incentive.

Those who have technical issues will receive the incentive in the form of cash by the end of September while those who have not updated their bank account details will receive a cheque by the end of October. – September 21, 2017.