Outcomes of BPN appeal to be known in mid-June - Tengku Zafrul

The outcomes of the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) appeal will be released in mid-June, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said.

"The date will be announced soon," he said when presenting the Eighth Laksana Report on the Progress of the Prihatin implementation on his Facebook page today.

On the whole, out of the 10.6 million BPN cash aid recipients approved, 10.04 million received a total payout of RM10.78 billion or 96.7 percent as of June 5, 2020.

As for the remaining recipients, Zafrul said they could claim the aid from any Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) branch until Dec 31, 2020.

On the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) i-Lestari programme, he said as of June 5, the number of applications approved increased to 4.1 million compared with 4.0 million previously.

"The total payout involved was RM1.94 billion a month," he said.

On the EPF’s employee contribution reduction from 11 percent to 7.0 percent, he said as of June 5, over 5.7 million workers opted to continue reducing their contribution.

He said the total EPF’s contribution deduction from members to date accounted for RM1.87 billion, while the total number of contributors, who chose to keep their contribution at 11 percent, was now 1.85 million (compared with 1.7 million previously).

On the one-off RM600 special payment for tourist guides, Zafrul said as of June 5, there were still pending payments for 1,868 out of 8,323 tourist guides due to inaccurate bank information.

"Those eligible and yet to receive the payment can claim the cash aid from BSN counters beginning June 15, 2020," he added.

- Bernama