Minister of Finance Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul bin Tengku Abdul Aziz announced that those in the M40 income group, as well as youths, will benefit from the ePemula credit scheme during the Budget 2023 presentation. Previously, the ePemula credit was only given to the youths.
Budget 2023 unveiled a record RM372.340 billion for next year’s economic reform spending plan, surpassing 2022’s budget by RM40 billion. A total of RM400 million will be allocated to two million youths from ages 18 to 20 years old as well as students above the age of 21.
Each youth would be able to claim RM200 of ePemula credit—an initiative by the Malaysian Government “to help promote cashless transactions”. It’s RM50 more than what youths received this year, as they received a total of RM150. They had a choice of claiming it through an eWallet app of their choice—between Touch n’ Go eWallet, GrabPay, BigPay, and Shopee.
In addition to benefiting the youths, another RM800 million will be allocated for the M40 income group through ePemula credit. M40 are categorised as individuals “with annual income under RM100,000” and the eWallet programme is expected to benefit 8 million individuals.
Each individual under the M40 income group will receive RM100 of ePemula credit. Similar to how youths would be able to claim the credit, the M40 individuals will be able to claim the credit through eWallet apps. At the moment, the supported eWallets are not specified yet.
If the ePemula scheme for 2023 is similar to this year’s scheme, those eligible will be able to choose between several eWallets identified by the government, and the RM150 credit can only be used for offline purchases. However, there was some controversy over Grab—one of the eWallets—as users complained of getting RM150 vouchers instead of credit.
