GEORGE TOWN: A total 174,247 senior citizens in Penang are set to receive RM130 each as aid in the first payment of the increased amount which will cost the state government RM22,652,110.
The amount, an increase of RM30 from the previous RM100, was announced in the state’s 2018 budget presented last year.
“The increase is a recognition of the state’s competency, accountability and transparency (CAT) formula in governing the state, in continuing its ‘anti-graft’ dividends to Penangites, notably senior citizens,” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said in a statement today.
The senior citizens appreciation programme was started in 2009 by the Penang government for people aged 60 years and above, and who are voters.
As of last year, a total 167,489 senior citizens have benefited from this aid, Lim said.
Lim also said Penang achieved a budget surplus of RM89.2 million as reported in the 2016 Auditor-General’s Report.
This meant the state’s accumulated surplus since 2008 was RM667 million compared to RM105.7 million recorded for the nine years before 2008.
The RM667 million, Lim said, even exceeded the RM373 million accumulated surplus attained by the previous administration which governed for 50 years from 1957 to 2007.
“The state’s debt was also reduced by 90% to RM68 million at the end of 2016, the lowest (of any state) in Malaysia,” he said.
Lim, in tabling the 2018 Budget, had also introduced several new policies to ease the financial burden of people in Penang.
Among the policies are the “I-Love-Penang smart card for various social facilities and benefits in Penang; RM300 credit for families earning below RM5,000 a month seeking outpatient treatment at any private clinic; RM150 credit for single people earning below RM2,500 a month; as well as RM300 in child care assistance for mothers with children aged below six. -FMT
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