KUALA LUMPUR: The Rahmah initiative will soon be expanded to cover four new areas of focus, targeting university students, the B40 group, as well as the hardcore poor.
These initiatives, aimed at assisting those grappling with the rising cost of living, are Rahmah Package, Rahmah Cafe, Rahmah Sale and Rahmah Basket.
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The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry earlier this week launched the Menu Rahmah programme, which offers a complete meal for RM5. Some 15,000 food operators are participating in the initiative.
These programmes, which the ministry is hoping will become a mainstay in the management of the target group, are expected to be launched next month.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, unveiled the initiatives to the New Straits Times on Thursday.
The Rahmah Basket programme is a project to provide food baskets containing basic necessities such as rice, flour, biscuits, sardines and instant noodles. Each basket will be valued between RM50 and RM100 each, and recipients will be provided with the essential items once a month.
Salahuddin said the ministry had engaged several major hypermarkets such as Econsave, Aeon, Aeon Big, 99 Speedmart and Lotus's to provide items for the food basket. The ministry, he said, was updating the list of the B40 group as it was aware of the possible increase in their number.
Statistics provided by the Prime Minister's Department's Implementation Coordination Unit showed 127,000 Malaysian households were categorised as hardcore poor.
The Rahmah Sale programme, meanwhile, offers discounted prices of between three and 30 per cent, for more than 1,000 items on the premises.
The Rahmah Package programme involves the same players providing 12 fast-moving consumer goods items, including milk, fruits and vegetables.
"The 12 items listed are the essentials needed most by the consumers, as reflected in these supermarkets' sales records," Salahuddin said.
The Rahmah Cafe programme aims to provide university students with free lunch. Under the initiative, their breakfast and dinner bills will be subsidised by up to 50 per cent. For starters, this programme will cover 20 public institutions of higher learning in the Klang Valley.
Salahuddin said he hoped that the Rahmah initiative would help the people manage their cost of living.
"InsyaAllah this will not be a one-off initiative and we are hoping that it will be sustained."