PETALING JAYA: The Basic Rahmah Contribution (Sara) initiative has seen an overwhelming take-up, with recipients spending more than RM110 million nationwide within just two days of its rollout. As of 9.30pm on Monday, over 1.7 million recipients had made purchases under the scheme, with nearly RM60 million spent that day alone.
System operator MyKasih Foundation said it had boosted the processing capacity of its terminals by 60% following heavy traffic on the first day.
By 5pm on day two, almost 600,000 transactions had been completed – a 20% rise compared with Sunday. In total, 1.45 million transactions worth RM91 million were successfully processed over two days.
“Our technical team continues to actively monitor the system and will take immediate action to improve capacity where needed,” MyKasih said in a statement.
Despite improvements, slow processing was still reported in Selangor, Perak, Sabah and Malacca, particularly at large hypermarkets in urban centres.
Peak hours between 1pm and 2.30pm saw long queues, which MyKasih attributed to the surge in shoppers taking advantage of the long weekend.
Staff have since been deployed to major outlets to troubleshoot issues and provide on-the-ground support to traders.
However, some shoppers at registered outlets reported they could not redeem the one-off credit due to glitches, forcing them to pay with cash.
The Finance Ministry has advised recipients to plan purchases during off-peak hours, such as weekday mornings, to avoid congestion and ensure smoother transactions.
The RM100 credit is valid until Dec 31 and can be redeemed at more than 7,300 participating retail outlets nationwide.
