KUCHING: 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) recipients will need to comply with a new requirement of submitting personal documents to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) when updating their personal particulars.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Women’s national vice-president Voon Shiak Ni said she discovered the new requirement when PKR members helped recipients to update their personal information for BR1M next year.
“The BR1M recipients are required to update their personal data yearly even though they have received it in previous years. For this year, the status of BR1M recipients must be supported with personal documents.
“For example, if a recipient has become a widow or widower, he or she needs to submit the death certificate of his or her deceased wife or husband to IRB. As for single parents or divorcees and those who have remarried, the BR1M recipients need to submit their divorce documents and marriage certificate to the IRB. All these need to be done within seven days after their data is updated online,” she told a press conference here yesterday.
Voon said the seven-day restriction imposed for the submission of the personal documents to IRB would cause inconvenience to the public, adding that the public should be given up to the closing date on Dec 31 to submit their personal documents.
“We want the IRB to confirm whether they are going to strictly impose the seven-day restriction for the public to submit their personal documents, which is not friendly to them.
“Another thing is what about for those staying in rural areas? Where are they going to submit their personal documents to? And the seven-day restriction for them to submit their personal documents will also create inconvenience for them. The IRB office is not available in the rural areas,” said Voon.
Voon also called for more staff and hotlines to cater to public enquiries, especially when there were new rules and requirements to meet for the approval of BR1M.
“I tried calling the hotline this morning to confirm on certain public queries and the line was engaged for two hours. I called about 10 times before I got connected to the officer,” she claimed.
Voon said as the timeframe for new BR1M applications was from Dec 4-31, the PKR service centre at Mile 3 Maong Bazaar will open on Mondays to Saturdays from 9am to 5pm to assist the public.
“We will also set up mobile counters at Thompson Corner in Tabuan Jaya this coming Saturday from 9.30am to 1pm to assist the public with their BR1M applications. The following Saturday (Dec 17), we will be opening counters at Batu Kawah Old Bazaar,” she said.
The BR1M will be disbursed next month.