MoF estimates 300,000 diesel owners eligible for RM200/month in aid, over 30,000 applicants approved

More than 30,000 applications from individual and agricultural smallholders have been approved for the RM200 monthly financial aid under the Budi Madani initiative, the ministry of finance has announced.

The first round of RM200 financial assistance will be disbursed on June 10, 2024 into the successful applicant’s bank account, while successful applicants without a bank account may receive their RM200 financial assistance in cash from any Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) branch nationwide, with their MyKad identification.

Eligible applicants may still register for the financial assistance, and successful applications submitted in June 2024 will be eligible to receive the aid in the same month, and in the following month, according to the ministry’s statement. Applications received after June 2024 will only receive the aid in July 2024, and not in the month prior.

The ministry of finance has estimated that around 300,000 owners of diesel-powered private individual vehicles in Peninsular Malaysia are eligible to receive the financial aid under Budi Individual, while 68,000 farmers, 8,000 breeders and 34,000 small-scale aquaculture business owners will be eligible to receive aid under Budi Agri-Commodity.

Applications for Budi Madani financial assistance opened May 28, with two categories – Budi Individual and Budi Agri-Commodity.

Criteria for Budi Individual applicant eligibility are as follows:

• Malaysian citizenship
• Owner of a JPJ-registered diesel private vehicle, except luxury diesel vehicles less than 10 years of age
• Vehicle has valid road tax
• Annual income of RM100,000 and under (individuals and couples)

Criteria for Budi Agri-Commodity applicant eligibility are as follows:

• Malaysian citizenship
• Registered farmer or smallholder with relevant agencies under the ministry of agriculture and food security (KPKM) or the ministry of plantation and commodities (KPK)
• Able to demonstrate annual turnover of between RM50,000 and RM300,000 from farming or commodity production

The SKDS 2.0 programme – aimed at the logistics sector – began in March this year involving five petroleum companies and nine vehicle types, with the former having issued 90,000 fleet cards to eligible transport companies last month.

On May 30, minister of domestic trade and cost of living Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said that applicants may apply for either the subsidised diesel control system 2.0 (SKDS 2.0) or Budi Madani, but not both, as SKDS 2.0 applies to companies, whereas the Budi Madani programme is intended for farmers, smallholders and others, the minister said.

However, according to MoF sources, we were informed that a person could technically apply for both SKDS 2.0 and Budi Individual if they are both a business owner, as well as a personal owner of a diesel vehicle. This suggests that the same person could apply for SKDS 2.0 for the company-registered diesel vehicle, and under Budi if he or she has a privately-owned diesel car as well.

With the aforementioned 30,000 applicants approved from an estimated pool of 300,000 eligible diesel vehicle owners, there appears to be many more who have yet to apply for the targeted subsidy assistance. If you might be eligible and haven’t applied yet, best to do so as soon as possible.

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