PUTRAJAYA – Caretaker communications and multimedia minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa today confirmed that there were cases of sale of PerantiSiswa tablets and that stern action would be taken against the individuals involved in selling the device they received under the Keluarga Malaysia PerantiSiswa Programme.
He said 14 cases of sale of the tablets were reported nationwide so far and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry is closely monitoring the development.
“Action will be taken against students who sell their PerantiSiswa tablets, such as by putting their names on display at the PerantiSiswa portal and notifying their universities of their activities,” he said after chairing the meeting of the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation here today.
The Keluarga Malaysia PerantiSiswa Programme is the Communications and Multimedia Ministry initiative to help the students and undergraduates from the B40 households.
Reports on students selling their PerantiSiswa tablets, namely Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 LTE, for a price lower than the market price went viral on social media yesterday.
Annuar said the act of selling the device is indeed irresponsible and that the government views the matter seriously.
In fact, he said the act can be likened to breaching the “akujanji” (pledge) they signed when they received the tablets.
“I hope this (sale) will stop soon...I’m deeply disappointed when the recipients of the tablets had the nerve to sell them openly online...I don’t think it’s appropriate as they are not for sale,” he said.
Annuar said the tablets given under the programme have specific applications which made it possible for them to be tracked down, whether they are still in the university’s compound or elsewhere.
“The application enables the device to track its owner to know whether it has been sold. So far, several of the PerantiSiswa tablets have been blocked from use,” he said.
Annuar said the ministry is also looking into the possibility to implement a buy-back policy for the recipients to sell their tablets back to the government if they no longer require them.
“For those who no longer require the tablets, maybe we can introduce a buy-back policy after a year...I will look into it rather than having them sell the device at a lower price...that’s not good,” he said.
Meanwhile, Annuar said the Communications and Multimedia Ministry is committed to continuing the distribution of the tablets to the approved applicants under the programme.
“I have set a target to complete the distribution by November 31 as the number of cases on sale of the tablets was relatively small,” he said.
As of October 18, a total of 474,311 applications for the PerantiSiswa tablets were received, 95,882 of which were in the first phase and 378,429 in the second phase. – Bernama, October 25, 2022
