Pemerkasa: RM300 subsidy to be given out in May to help parents purchase smartphones

The RM300 subsidy will be given towards household with school-going children. — Screengrab from Facebook

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has announced that a RM300 subsidy will be given to households with schoolgoing children to purchase smartphones or tablets as part of the newly-announced Pemerkasa initiative.

Muhyiddin in his speech today (March 17) said the initiative is an enhancement of the RM180 smartphone subsidy for all Bantuan Prihatin Hidup recipients under the Jaringan Prihatin programme, which was unveiled during Budget 2021 in November last year.

Now with the RM300 subsidy, Muhyiddin said the allocation for Jaringan Prihatin Programme under Pemerkasa has increased from RM1.5bil to RM2bil.

“God willing, the initiative will be launched in early May,” he said.

The Jaringan Prihatin Programme was introduced to enable more Malaysians to get Internet access with the aim of closing the digital divide.

He also appealed to telcos to continue providing affordable Internet package plans along with additional quota for data.

He also announced that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will introduce a MyBaikHati programme, a crowdsourcing initiative to collect secondhand laptops and other devices that will be refurbished before being distributed to Internet Community Centres and other community organisations.

More details on the initiative are expected to be announced at a later date.