OVER 630,000 members of the Indian community are among 5.4 million recipients set to receive RM1.1 billion in the latest round of government cash assistance, with payments beginning today ahead of Deepavali.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the fourth phase of the Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) programme was intended to ease the financial burden of families celebrating the festival, while helping other recipients meet daily needs and year-end expenses.
Payments to existing recipients will be made in stages from Nov 4 to 6, while newly approved applicants and successful appeal cases will receive their payments from Nov 16, the Finance Ministry said today.
Of the 5.4 million recipients, four million are households with monthly incomes of RM5,000 and below, while 1.4 million are single elderly people.
Eligible households will receive up to RM500, while single elderly recipients will receive RM150.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, announced the disbursement during a visit to inspect preparations for Deepavali celebrations in Brickfields today.
He said the STR and Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programmes enabled the government to channel national revenue to groups in need, regardless of race, religion or whether they lived in urban or rural areas.
The payments will be credited directly to recipients' bank accounts, while those without bank accounts can collect the cash at Bank Simpanan Nasional branches.
The ministry also said 1.68 million recipients who had not updated their application details for three consecutive years had been reminded via SMS to do so.
They are advised to update their information through the official STR portal to allow their eligibility to be reassessed for 2027.
The overall allocation for STR and SARA this year stands at RM15 billion, nearly three times the amount disbursed under the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) programme in 2016.
Further information and eligibility checks are available at bantuantunai.hasil.gov.my, while details of SARA can be found at sara.gov.my.
The ministry urged the public to beware of fake links and scams, and to rely only on official portals for updates. - November 4, 2026
