After being teased for the past several months, the Pangkalan Data Utama (PADU) is now officially open to the public. Developed in just seven months through a collaboration between the Ministry of Economy, the Department of Statistics (DOSM), and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, the new Central Database Hub will be used by the government to get a clearer picture of the national household income.
The government claimed that PADU will allow it to distribute subsidies more effectively and ultimately help it make a more informed decision when it comes to policy-making. The data for the centralized database is said to be sourced from over 400 government agencies as well as other related organizations although PADU’s data gathering will not involve bank information systems.
Who is eligible to register for PADU? When is the deadline to update my data?
PADU is currently open to citizens and permanent residents of Malaysia aged 18 years and above. You have until 31 March 2024 to check, verify, and update all the information contained within the database.
Is it compulsory to sign up? Will I lose out on subsidies if I ignore PADU?
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli has previously said that it is not compulsory for the public to sign up and update their information on PADU. After all, the government already have your information from multiple agencies.
So, the existing information will remain as it is if you choose to ignore PADU. However, it might already be outdated and this may affect your eligibility for future aid or subsidies from the government.
Among the upcoming subsidy programmes that are expected to utilise PADU is the RON95 petrol subsidy. Back in November, Rafizi said that the existing blanket implementation for the RON95 subsidy would be replaced by a targeted subsidy programme sometime in the second half of 2024.
How to register for a PADU account? How long the process takes?
In general, PADU’s registration process is fairly straightforward. There are two parts to the process which starts with your basic personal information.
To create a PADU account, the only information that the system requires is your full name, MyKad number, and postcode. Do note that all these details must match what is currently stated on your MyKad.
You also need to provide your mobile phone number to receive the One-Time Password (OTP). After your OTP is verified, you will then be asked to create a password for the PADU account.
Once that is done, the second part of the registration would then begin which is the Electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) verification. This portion of the process takes place completely through the web browser and involves snapping a picture of the front and rear sides of your MyKad as well as a selfie.
To initiate the e-KYC verification process, scan the QR code after you set up the password for your PADU account and then follow the on-screen instructions. While the end screen did say that it may take 3 days for the eKYC process to be completed, it took us less than 10 minutes to complete both account creation and eKYC verification.
I don’t have a smartphone or computer to register for PADU. Can I do it manually?
Yes, you can register for a PADU account manually. However, this particular method is reserved only for rural areas that have no Internet connection as the government will deploy an outreach team to cover such locations.
Alternatively, you can also register for a PADU account and update your details on the database by visiting DOSM’s state offices and the nearest Pusat Ekonomi Digital (PEDi). The government is also planning to open PADU counters at district offices, federal and state government agencies, and Pusat Internet Desa.
What is the information contained within PADU?
There are a total of 8 main sections within PADU which include:
- Basic personal information
- Address and home types
- Education
- Household members’ personal information
- Current work
- Income for the past 12 months
- Monthly financial commitment
- Government aid for the past 12 months
During his presentation before the launch earlier today, the Chief Statistician of Malaysia, Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that it takes an average of 25 minutes to fill up all the data fields listed in PADU. This is based on a user profile who is a head of a household with two children.
Is there anything within the PADU system that I should be aware of?
Through our brief experience with the PADU system earlier today, there are certainly a couple of things that you need to be aware of when you log into the system. For one, PADU’s interface is currently only available in Bahasa Malaysia which does not come as a surprise since it is meant only for Malaysians.
As noted earlier, PADU is supposed to pull data from more than 400 government agencies. So, we expected that most of the fields would already be populated when we logged into the system.
However, we were surprised to see most of the data fields were empty. So, instead of just verifying and updating the details inside the database, you would spend more time filling in new information into it.
In other words, PADU in its current state felt more like a data entry exercise.
Another interesting quirk that we noticed about PADU is the behaviour of the green thumbs-up icon on the main Profile screen. On certain sections such as the financial commitment and government aids, the icon would turn to green even if you simply opened them and did not input any data before going to other sections of the website.
This would open up the possibility of forgetting to update your details in these sections as the green icon may give you the false impression that you already sort them out. So, please make sure to go through all the sections within PADU before finalizing your submission to ensure that you already covered all the data fields that are related to you.
Not to forget, make sure that you press the Simpan button to save your input whenever you update your details inside the PADU system.
No edits are allowed once you submit your update
Before we wrap this up, let us point out the biggest quirk of the PADU system which is related to the submission process: you can only submit your PADU details ONCE.
As noted in the final verification section of the website, you will not be able to edit your details once you have confirmed your submission. If you want to make changes to your data on PADU, you have to wait for the next update window.
For now, the website has not mentioned when the next update window will take place but if we need to make a guess, it will not be anytime soon. So, make sure all your details are thoroughly in order before pressing that Hantar Perakuan button.
