PUTRAJAYA will be paying out cash aid of RM300 for low-income earners on January 28 next year, using the same database and method used by the previous government, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Previously, Lim said Pakatan Harapan would use a new approach to deliver the aid, rebranded from the previous government’s 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) to Cost of Living Aid.

“The government is forced to use the old database, which may include names of undeserving recipients, so that we can make the payment before February.

“The process to get rid of undeserving recipients who are not from the B40 group will take some time to be implemented,” he said in a statement today.

Earlier this month, Lim said the payments would be made after Chinese New Year, as the government needed some time to gather information as it was using a new approach to deliver the aid.

Chinese New Year is on February 5.

The government has tweaked the quantum of cash aid from before under BR1M, so that households earning less will receive more than those with higher incomes.

Now, households earning RM2,000 and below will receive RM1,000, those earning between RM2,001 and RM3,000 will receive RM750, and households earning RM3,001 to RM4,000 will receive RM500.

The RM300 given to 4.1 million households on January 28 will constitute phase one of payments.

“The total amount to be paid out by the government is RM1.2 billion. The amount will be credited into the recipients’ respective bank accounts,” said Lim.

He added that payments for phase two and three will follow once the database has been updated to remove undeserving recipients, and that the phase three payments will be implemented using a new system. – December 26, 2018.