Anwar announces incentives to improve welfare of Felda folk

SERDANG: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced several initiatives and incentives to improve the quality of life and preserve the welfare of Felda settlers, including providing infrastructure, healthcare, digitalisation and housing.

Among the announcements made by Anwar was the Rahmah Health Contribution (SKR), which involves an allocation of RM21.21mil, the construction of a hemodialysis centre with an allocation of RM21mil, expenses for the cost of operating street lights with financial implications of RM7.7mil per year, and a diesel subsidy of RM36mil a year for three Felda settlements in Sabah.

He also announced the Digital Madani programme to empower the gig economy, resolutions to issues with regard to the Felda New Generation Housing (PGBF) scheme and efforts to help rubber smallholders switch to other commodity crops such as palm oil and coconut.

Anwar, who is Finance Minister, also said the unity government's commitment to write off a portion of settlers’ loans amounting to RM8.3bil.

"We made a decision to reduce, not add to the burden of Felda folk; there are second, third and fourth generations (of settlers that need to be taken care of)," he said at the Felda Settlers’ Day celebration here today (July 7).

On June 28, an agreement with a government guarantee was signed for the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) to restructure the agency's loans through the issuance of sukuk and revolving credit as part of efforts to restore Felda's financial position.

The Finance Ministry informed that a major part of the restructuring of Felda's loans is to reduce the principal of Felda's debt to financial institutions by RM7.9bil.

Touching on healthcare for Felda residents, Anwar said a special SKR incentive of RM300 would benefit 70,715 settlers aged 65 and above.

He also acknowledged the hardship faced by settlers who had to travel long distances to the hospital to undergo hemodialysis treatment, and announced that 12 haemodialysis centres would be built with an allocation of RM21mil in all Felda regions and another one at the Felda Foundation premises in Kelana Jaya.

"The haemodialysis centres will benefit 2,000 patients," he said.

Meanwhile, Anwar said the government did not forget the settlers in Sabah, announcing a diesel subsidy amounting to RM36mil per year for power generation and water treatment operations at the Sahabat, Umas and Kalabakan complexes in Sabah.

The incentive, he said, would benefit nearly 43,000 residents in the three areas.

Since July 2021, he said Felda had spent almost RM128mil on energy generation, treatment and supply of clean water in these areas.

According to Anwar, the government has also approved an allocation of RM7.7mil per year to cover the cost of operating 37,012 streetlights at Felda settlements nationwide.

"I agreed to approve the street-lighting project for all Felda areas; we have given the allocation, from next week, we will start fixing the streetlights in all Felda areas," he said.

In order to make Felda a leader in digital transformation, Anwar said the Digital Madani programme would be implemented in cooperation with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) at 30 Digital Economy Centres (PEDi) identified across the country including at the Felda Foundation College in Kelana Jaya.

To help resolve issues involving the PGBF scheme which had been abandoned, Anwar said the government would provide the appropriate funding for the immediate completion of the remaining 283 PGBF housing units, while it was also considering drastic measures to help rubber smallholders to switch to other commodity crops such as oil palm and coconut, subject to the approval of the respective state governments. - Bernama