SEREMBAN: A one-off RM100 Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) payment has helped a family of five in Seremban cover their daily expenses for the next two months.
Recent university graduate Norsarah Hishamuddin, 28, from Tampin found the aid particularly meaningful as it enabled her to assist her parents with grocery purchases.
Norsarah, along with her two younger siblings aged 25 and 20, and their educator parents each received RM100, bringing the family total to RM500.
“My siblings and I are not working yet, so at least this assistance helps our parents with daily essentials,” she told Bernama.
She expressed hope that such aid would continue in the future, noting it reflects the MADANI government’s genuine concern for public welfare.
Checks by Bernama at several Johor supermarkets found people using the public holiday to redeem their cash aid for essential goods.
Nor Hanida Md Yasin, 45, from Pulai Jaya said she and her husband planned to redeem the aid in stages to better manage their monthly spending.
“With RM100, I can buy sugar, rice, cooking oil, sardines, condensed milk and many other things,” she explained.
She noted some initial system disruptions due to high redemption volumes but understood the situation given the public holiday timing.
Private sector worker S. Segar, 34, who works in Singapore, had looked forward to redeeming his SARA aid for groceries today.
“I planned to buy two bags of rice, sugar, salt and biscuits but postponed due to system issues,” he said.
He nevertheless expressed gratitude to the government for the thoughtful Merdeka gift despite the temporary inconvenience.
The one-off aid involving a RM2 billion allocation was credited via MyKad yesterday, benefiting 22 million Malaysians aged 18 and above. – Bernama
