PUTRAJAYA: Applicants who are eligible for the 2019 Cost of Living Assistance (COLA) are urged to register and update their household information for the second and third phase of payments scheduled in May and August.
The Ministry of Finance, in a statement, said the process of registration and updating household information started yesterday until March 15, was implemented to ensure only eligible households were given COLA.
It said that this was to ensure national resources were used prudently and accurately for the B40 group and avoided leakage of aid to the well-to-do.
It said eligible applicants could do so by filling up application forms obtainable at any Inland Revenue Board (IRB) branch, IRB’s Revenue Service Centre, Urban Transformation Centres’ (UTC) IRB or by downloading the forms from the official COLA portal at https://bsh.hasil.gov.my.
Applications could also be made online at the same portal.
The Ministry of Finance would also co-operate with the Department of Social Welfare (JKM), Orang Asli Development Department (JAKOA) and the Implementation Co-ordination Unit (ICU) to find a pro-active method to provide registration facility to the households from the interior areas and certain groups like the invalids, he said.
According to the statement, the balance of the COLA payment would be using the new method as announced in the 2019 Budget, including the introduction of additional rates depending on the number of dependent children.
For the record, the first phase of COLA payment which involved a payment of RM1.2 billion had been implemented on Jan 28 and benefited four million households. — Bernama
