Everything you need to know about BR1M
The Malaysian government came up with a scheme sometime back in 2012 whereby each household would receive direct cash assistance and thus the BR1M scheme was born. Is it now a good thing that the government has decided to give back some money to the public? Why do some people still complain like this scheme is a disaster? Let us take a closer look at to what the BR1M scheme is all about and what goals does the government plan to accomplish by giving each house hold a certain amount of funds back.
The concept of BR1M is rather simple as the government’s aim is to help out the poorer ones in the community who actually have a household income of less than RM 3000. The goal here is to help those people who are in the lower income bracket to cope with inflation as the cost of living in Malaysia has been rising. The aid given is to minimize the financial burden of these Malaysians as the money given could also be used to cover the cost of the rise of fuel in this country. As of now, households that earn an income between RM 4000 and RM 5000 are not entitled to anything. For those of you who do fall in that income bracket, do not be discouraged as the government is considering to include this higher income group into their scheme in time to come. The reason for this is to provide equal financial aid for majority of the other people who are also having financial difficulties coping with these hard times.
While this might sound like fair play, you will be surprised to find out that they there are a group of people who are the current beneficiaries are arguing that the higher income group which will soon be allowed to receive the aid should not receive the similar amount as they are already earning more. For the year 2015, the aid to be handed out is as shown in the table below.
Despite the government’s plans to help the expansion of the BR1M aid to the public, many people have also been questioning the government as there have been doubts based on the fact that Malaysia has continuously experienced budget deficits for more than 15 years already. Malaysia’s debt has also risen to more than have of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the highest compares to twelve other emerging companies in Asia. When this issue was brought up, the government replied to say that they need not necessarily provide aid in the form of cash but instead they could use many other ways to ensure that the needy households get the deserved assistance they need. The government also made it clear by saying that they will not be spending everything they have purely on these cash hand-outs to the public alone so people should not have expectations which are too high.
The Conclusion
By having such a scheme, the people here in Malaysia will have the benefits of paying of some of their bills and this extra boost of income can also serve as a source of emergency fund. Apart from all that, the prime minister has addressed a large gathering to the people at Bagan Serai where he asked the peoples opinion to see if they would benefit more in the event that the fuel prices are reduced or if they would be happier receiving the BR1M aid. Most of the people have also said that they would be happier if they had the BR1M aid as these people with low incomes rarely indulge in activities that involve the use of petrol. For those of you who qualify for this aid, do make sure you apply at the beginning of each year especially if you think you could make good use of this money to help you out with your bills. Traders, farmers and labourers are also some of the other people in society who will benefit a whole lot more from this scheme and the circulation of money among the millions of people will also boost up businesses around.