Abang Johari (middle) symbolically hands over BKSS assistance to International Society for Krishna Consciousness Kuching (Iskcon) chairman Kripa Sindu Krishna Das
KUCHING (Dec 23): An additional RM92 million has been approved for the Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) financial aid to 120,000 more recipients, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg today.
He said this allocation is for the 120,000 individuals who succeeded in their appeal applications for BKSS after they had missed out on the earlier phases of the cash aid payment.
He also said the cash aid payment for them was made this month, with some of the recipients receiving the aid through their SarawakPay e-wallet accounts.
“I had read comments on Facebook telling Abang Jo that they did not get the cash aid and they have appealed. The total appeals received were 120,000 application and we have approved RM92 million to give assistance to them. This means all Sarawakians will and have received the assistance during this Covid-19 pandemic.
“Other assistance such as reducing rent, moratorium — all of those we will continue. I hope we all pray there is no more Covid-19 in the coming years,” he said at the symbolic handing over ceremony of BKSS financial assistance today.
According to Abang Johari, the assistance is for frontliners, B40 families and single individuals earning below RM2,000 monthly who are eligible for the cash aid programme.
“I received feedback that many applications from the single and B40 families did not succeed because they are not in the list under the Income Revenue Board. Therefore, many were left out under BKSS 4.0.
“We pity them, they should have received the aid. Therefore I made the decision that they would receive the aid. This has been settled and we held a symbolic ceremony today to present the special assistance to those who were left out of the earlier phases,” he added.
Abang Johari said the Sarawak government has so far allocated RM2.55 billion for BKSS to help Sarawakians to cushion the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on their income and livelihood.
Also present today were Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and Deputy State Secretary Dato Sri Abu Bakar Marzuki.