2025 Budget: PMX Announces Highest Increase For STR Cash Aid
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today tables the 2025 Budget in the Dewan Rakyat.
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The government announced that it will be providing the highest increase for the Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) cash aid as well as Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA), amounting to RM13 billion compared to RM10 billion previously.
This increase will continue to benefit 9 million recipients, equivalent to 60 percent of the adult population, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said when tabling the 2025 Budget in Parliament today.
Next year, 4.1 million STR household category recipients will receive SARA of RM100 per month, compared to 700,000 recipients this year.
SARA assistance will be credited into the recipients’ MyKAD starting April 2025, and can be spent on basic necessities such as food and beverages, medicines, school supplies, and personal hygiene items at more than 600 supermarkets and retail stores across the country.
The singles category will receive STR of RM600.
The additional allocation of RM3 billion allows the maximum amount received by households to increase to RM4,600 compared to RM3,700.
“We acknowledge and hear the concerns about the cost of living. Hence, we are taking steps and economic policies that involve increasing the allocation and the maximum amount of cash assistance, which is the highest ever provided by the Government to address the cost of living for the people,” Anwar said.
This will also be supplemented by an increase in the allocation for cash assistance under the Department of Social Welfare (JKM) to RM2.9 billion ringgit, compared to RM2.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the monthly welfare assistance rate for the poor will be increased as follows:
The Senior Citizens Assistance Rate will be raised to RM600 per month, compared to RM500 per month.
The Child Assistance Rate for Poor Families will also be increased as follows:
From RM200 ringgit to RM250 per child aged 6 and below and from RM150 to RM200 per child aged 7 to 18.
Sedia ke Parlimen untuk pembentangan Belanjawan 2025 Malaysia MADANI.
— Anwar Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim) October 18, 2024
Doakan ia berjalan lancar, Insya-Allah.#Belanjawan2025#MalaysiaMADANI pic.twitter.com/WNPmHuUUCb
In the Federal Territories, the general assistance rate will also be increased to RM150 compared to RM100, with the maximum per family at RM500 per month.
“I urge all State Governments to also improve their State General Assistance Rates,” Anwar said.
He added that a calculation of the total assistance from STR, SARA and the Welfare Department would work out as follows:
A poor household with three children is eligible to receive more than RM13,000, a significant increase from RM11,000 currently.
Poor elderly citizens will be eligible to receive over RM10,000 a year, compared to RM8,000.
This means that no citizen in Malaysia will have an income of less than RM1,100 per month.
He remarked that this does not yet take into account assistance from State Governments, Zakat, and Foundations.
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