PUTRAJAYA: The rollout of the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative as announced in the 2020 Budget is on track to be launched in January.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the RM450 million one-off digital stimulus announced under the Budget was aimed at accelerating the use and adoption of e-wallets and digital payments among Malaysian consumers and merchants, especially small enterprises and retail businesses.
“The ministry has appointed Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) to facilitate and coordinate the rollout of the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative, which involves close collaboration with various parties, including the National Registration Department and the Inland Revenue Board.
“Khazanah will also be bringing on board selected e-wallet service providers that together provide a ready platform of a large number of active users and a broad merchant network for the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative to leverage on.
“It will announce e-wallet service providers which have been selected for the initiative, based on established criteria to facilitate a quick, effective and successful rollout by January 2020,” said the minister in a statement today.
He said the e-wallet service providers also planned to provide additional incentives to further encourage users over the two-month period of the initiative.
The overall implementation work facilitated by Khazanah, Lim added, was a comprehensive effort to ensure that the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative would be delivered within the given time-frame that would provide a satisfactory and secure user experience.
“The implementation covers multiple areas such as establishing the necessary mechanisms, processes and procedures for the initiative.”
Through e-Tunai Rakyat, Lim said Malaysians 18 years of age and above and earning less than RM100,000 annually were eligible to receive RM30 each that could be spent on goods and services available through the participating e-wallet service providers of their choice.
“More information on how eligible Malaysians can apply for the RM30 and the terms and conditions of its use will be provided by Khazanah and the participating e-wallet service providers soon.”
He said the e-Tunai Rakyat programme was in line with the government’s Shared Prosperity agenda aimed at lowering barriers to access digital technology and to make the digitalisation process inclusive for all.
“We are confident that the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative will greatly benefit Malaysian consumers and merchants, and achieve its intended objectives of further transforming Malaysia towards becoming a vibrant digital society and economy.
“It is expected that the RM30 to be provided to each person will be topped up based on the conditions and offers by the e-wallet service providers,” Lim said.