RM500 aid payouts only in January

Luke Rintod

While BN appears confident that the aids announced in the Budget 2012 will help raise the likelihood of a win, Sabahans remain reticent.

KOTA KINABALU: Hundreds of Sabahans who swarmed the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) headquarters here and its branches statewide, particularly in Tawau and Sandakan, were disappointed to know that the federal government’s RM500 aid would only be handed out in January 2012.

Many had rushed to the IRB office here to hand over their forms and possibly collect the RM500 one-off cash aid which Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had promised for families earning less than RM3,000 a month.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, had announced the aid during his Budget 2012 speech, ahead of a crucial general election tipped to be held next year.

Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had before this announced a one-month registration for eligible applicants. Registrations began last Saturday.

But yesterday only “eligible” families were turning in droves for the forms. In Tawau a scuffle was reported as aid seekers scrambled for forms.

The forms actually can also be obtained from the Federal Development Department and its branch offices, and a few state agencies.

A check in a few districts found out that the two-sided A4-sized form were also being distributed by political aides of the ruling party.

The unprecedented allocation of RM2.6 billion is supposed to benefit 5.2 million people or 79.5 percent of the total households in the country. It is meant to reduce the impact of the increasing cost of living on the low-income groups.

Timely aid

However many observers are of the opinion that it is part of Najib coalition’s ploy to entice the electorates to support and vote for embattled Barisan Nasional who continued to be plagued by internal problems after it lost a two-thirds majority in 2008 general election.

In Sabah, which hosted the biggest bulks of the country’s poorest households, the RM500 aid has been made a rallying point to continue supporting BN.

Though the RM500 aid is considered small in contrast to rising cost of living, it is the much-needed cash anyway.

While BN is confident that the aid, together with other aids announced in the 2012 budget, will somehow raise the likelihood that Sabahans would continue voting for them, aspirants of the aid are guarded in their comment, many admitting that the aid was timely but would not necessarily translate into votes for the ruling BN.

As one aid aspirant from Kota Belud, about 70 km from here, told FMT: “I want the money, it is people’s money but people may not necessarily vote for Umno or BN…”.