Payments For Phase 1 Of Bantuan Khas COVID-19 Out Today

Disbursement of the Bantuan Khas COVID-19 (BKC) fund starts rolling out today, according to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. BKC is a cash aid under the PEMULIH initiative that acts in addition to the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) programme.

The fund is worth a total of RM4.6 billion with the first phase doling out RM3.1 billion through banking institutions. “BKC will benefit some 10 million recipients, with a focus on targeted groups comprising the hardcore poor, B40, M40, and eligible bachelor groups,” said Ismail. Those categorised in the hardcore poor and B40 categories will start receiving their payments today, while those in the M40 group will have to wait until 9 September.

For the first two groups in this phase, households will get RM500 each while singles will only get RM200. As for the M40 households, they will receive a one-off payment RM250 while the M40 singles will be given RM100. Do take note that regardless of your category, if you are eligible but do not have a bank account, you will have to go to a BSN counter starting 9 September.

The second phase of BKC, slated to start later in November, will see hardcore poor households and singles be distributed with another RM500 and RM300 respectively with the M40 category completely left out. A final third phase in December will disburse an additional RM300 to both hardcore poor and B40 households, with no extra aid for singles.

Supposedly, you can check whether or not you’ll be receiving the BKC aid at this website, but as of this morning, the site is still not functional and only displays a poster for the dates of cash distribution. It’s also worth noting that recipients of BPR 2021 should be automatically eligible for BKC while those under appeal for BPR will have to wait until they are approved.

If you fail in your appeal to be categorised as B40, the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) says they will check against existing tax records to verify if you are within the M40 income bracket.  On another note, the Ministry of Finance still has not given any details on when they will begin phase 3 of BPR, which is supposed to start this month while there has also been no update on the status of BPR appeals since the second phase.