PM says to continue BR1M if revenues rise

By Shannon Teoh

March 13, 2012

A poll conducted in February, when BR1M was in full swing, found the PM’s approval rating had shot up by 10 percentage points. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — Putrajaya would consider another round of cash handouts for low-income earners if government revenue increased this year, Datuk Seri Najib Razak told Parliament today.

The prime minister had announced the RM500 aid for households earning less than RM3,000 a month in his budget speech last October, saying it would help ease the burden from surging cost of living. The unprecedented handouts for nearly 5.3 million households cost RM2

billion.

“We won’t reject if government revenue increases,” he said when answering a question on the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M). “We can consider it according to the situation.”

A poll conducted in February, when BR1M was in full swing, found the PM’s approval rating had shot up by 10 percentage points to 69 per cent, mainly due to nearly three-quarters of households earning less than RM1,500 a month giving him the thumbs up.

The handout comes at a time when both the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) prepared for general elections that must be called by the first half of 2013.

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