Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the first BR1M payment would be made in stages beginning tomorrow. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — The government has so far approved 5,153,238 applications for the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) this year, according to Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The Prime Minister said the decision on another 3,123,950 applications would be announced next month.

He said the first BR1M payment would be made in stages beginning tomorrow. In terms of age, the highest groups to receive approval were those in the 21 to 30 years bracket and those aged 61 and above, he said.

Najib in his latest blog posting at www.najibrazak.com, said 2,782,799 applicants would receive RM1200 each; 243,434 would get RM900 each; and 2,127,005 others, RM450 each.

In regard to figure breakdown for states, Selangor recorded the highest number of approvals with 666,316 followed by Sabah and Sarawak, with 477,482 and 537,588.

Meanwhile, the prime minister lashed out at the opposition for saying that BR1M was a bait to win votes and a bribery.

“BR1M should not be politicised. Don’t keep saying that the country was going bankrupt; in fact, the BR1M amount has kept increasing to further assist those in need,” he said.

He added that BR1M was a sincere aid from the government to the target groups, irrespective of race, religion or political affiliation and given according to eligibility and criteria based on individual or household income.

BR1M, Najib added, was among the primary mechanisms in targeted subsidy delivery to replace the less effective bulk subsidy system. — Bernama