KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) today gave an assurance that members of the public have until April 30 to check on their eligibility and make applications for ‘Bantuan Prihatin Nasional’ cash assistance.
In a posting on its Twitter account, the agency urged the public to be patient while explaining that it was working on resolving access issues concerning the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional portal which experienced heavy traffic when it opened today.
The Bantuan Prihatin Nasional one-off cash assistance for individuals from the B40 and M40 (low and middle-income) groups respectively, is among the initiatives of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin) unveiled by the government recently to help Malaysians from all walks of life to deal with the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bernama observed that many netizens had taken to social media to describe the difficulty encountered in accessing the portal since this morning.
The IRB also announced that recipients of the Bantuan Sara Hidup 2020 (cost of living aid) scheme automatically qualified to receive Bantuan Prihatin Nasional cash assistance, and therefore did not need to make applications for such. Payment will be made in April and May.
The payment of the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional cash assistance to individuals from the B40 (low-income) group will be made based on Bantuan Sara Hidup database information, while payments to those from the M40 (middle-income) group will based on income tax data.
The IRB had previously announced that its Hasil Care Line would begin operations from March 30 for enquiries on the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional cash assistance and on taxation issues. It will also operate throughout the imposition of the movement control order, from 9 am to 5 pm, on Sundays to Fridays.
The line can be accessed at 03-8911 1000 or +603-8911 1100 (for overseas callers).
The Bantuan Sara Hidup help line (1800-88-2747) remains operational.
— Bernama
