Stats on increase in B40 group to be known by mid-year, says Rafizi

KUALA LUMPUR: The findings to see if more Malaysians have slipped from the M40 to B40 group will be known by the middle of this year, says Rafizi Ramli (pic).

"The government, through the Statistics Department, is finalising the Household Income, Expenditure and Basic Amenities Survey (HIES/BA) 2022 involving 92,000 households from January to December 2022.

"The income limit for each income group is being finalised through this study, which is expected to be published by the middle of this year," the Economic Minister said.

Rafizi said this in a written reply to a question raised by Datuk Azman Nasrudin (PN-Padang Serai) in Parliament on Monday (March 20).

Azman wanted to know how many Malaysians had slipped from their respective income group and what was being done to cushion the impact of the rising cost of living.

Rafizi said that there were three main income groups, namely B40, M40 and T20.

Based on the HIES/BA survey 2019, 40% or 2.91 million households were in the lower income B40 group with monthly household incomes of less than RM4,850.

He said that 40% or 2.91 million households were in the M40 group with monthly household incomes of between RM4,850 and RM10,959.

He added that 20% or 1.46 million households were in the T20 group which had monthly household incomes of more than RM10,960.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rafizi said that the Statistics Department estimated that 20% of households slipped from the M40 group to B40 while 12.8% from the T20 group slipped to M40 in 2020.

Meanwhile, Rafizi said that several short- and long-term measures were announced under Budget 2023 to cushion the impact of the rising cost of living.

Among them, he said, was RM8bil under the Rahmah Cash Aid programme to benefit some 9.1 million recipients.

Also to be provided, he added, were RM400mil for the young, aged and disabled as well as RM1.6bil subsidies for farmers and smallholders.

He said this excluded some RM64bil under other various aid programmes.

Rafizi also said that RM750mil would be set aside to help develop individuals generate sustainable income of between RM2,000 and RM2,500 for 24 months covering several sectors.