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Electricity Rebates: Hardcore Poor Still A Priority For The Gov't

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- The welfare of the harcore poor continues to be the government’s priority through the provision of electricity rebates of up to RM40 per month in Budget 2024 announced last Friday.

The rebate is granted to reduce the burden in present-day high cost of living, thus reflecting the government’s concern in defending the plight of the poor in the country.

Housewife Diana Lokman, 40, said the move to continue giving electricity rebates shows the government’s continued efforts to ease the plight of the poor and to give direct benefit to the target groups.

“With this rebate, the monthly bill I have to pay is only around RM15 or less because the monthly usage is usually around RM50, I don’t use air conditioners or electric water filters and so on,” she said when contacted by Bernama today.

President of the Association of Water and Energy Research (AWER) Malaysia S. Piarapakaran lauded the rebate as a very good step in looking after the welfare of the poor because through this initiative, they will enjoy virtually free electricity every month.

“We know that these poor families have minimal electrical appliances in their homes, not as much as other well-off people, and based on my experience, their electricity bill is RM30 to RM50.

"So if their bill is below RM40, of course they don’t have to pay for electricity usage that month and if their electricity bill reaches even RM50, they only have to pay RM10 for the bill that month," he said.

He said the RM40 rebate is quite meaningful for poor families because they can use the RM40 to buy food which is actually more important.

“Based on the programmes I have done at the grassroots level, there are those not aware that assistance from the government exists and this, in turn, causes the initiatives to not achieve their goals.

“So in my opinion, maybe the Ministry of Education should cooperate to ensure that all forms of aid announced by the government are delivered (announced) by teachers to the poor students,” he said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when presenting the Malaysia MADANI Budget 2024 in the Dewan Rakyat last Friday, announced that the granting of electricity bill rebates of up to RM40 per month to hardcore poor households would continue.

Anwar, who is also the Minister of Finance, said that in order to ensure that this rebate achieves its goal, the government has allocated RM55 million for its implementation.

-- BERNAMA

 

 

 

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