Cash Aid Now Called Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah Or STR, Payment Starts Tomorrow
The B40 community will receive aid from Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR), previously known as Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), from 17 January onwards.
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Financial assistance for the B40 community from the Finance Ministry has been rebranded as Rahmah Cash Contribution (Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah) with disbursement to begin from tomorrow, 17 January 2023, onwards.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement that the unity government emphasises a compassionate approach to assist affected groups in the country.
In line with this approach, the government is introducing the Payung Rahmah concept to combat the rise in living costs.
The first phase of STR, which was set to be released in March, has been brought forward to combat the rising cost of living.
Each of the four million eligible households will be receiving RM300, while 1.2 million single senior citizens will receive RM100 each. The other 3.5 million bachelors will also get RM100 each.
The financial assistance will be credited to the bank accounts of recipients registered to receive STR in stages.
STR recipients living in the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak, whether they have bank accounts or not, will also receive their financial aid tomorrow.
Those without bank accounts can also collect their financial aid at Bank Simpanan Nasional branches from tomorrow onwards.
For more information, please head over to STR’s official website at https://bantuantunai.hasil.gov.my
History of the B40 financial aid scheme
The Rahmah Cash Contribution (STR) was first known as the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s time in office.
Bank Negara Malaysia first proposed the idea of BR1M to the then-prime minister in March 2011 and the disbursements started the next year in 2012.
The goal of BR1M was to provide direct and targeted help to low-income groups to ease financial pressures due to subsidy rationalisation.
It was then replaced by the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) scheme during the announcement of Budget 2019 under Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s term in office.
BSH still maintained its goal to help ease the cost of living in the B40 community.
The financial aid has been renamed several more times such as Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (2022), Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (2021), Bantuan Khas Covid19 (2021), and Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (2021).
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