Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has revealed that the Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states of Selangor and Kelantan have benefitted most from the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) handouts.

klang hokkien association najib cny 060212 “Selangor has the most BR1M recipients with 13 percent... and from the percentage of households, Kelantan has the highest number of recipients with 84 percent receiving the aid,” he said during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.

The full BR1M exercise has seen RM1.92 billion being spent, taken from Parliament-approved treasury orders on federal management expenditure.

In all, said Najib, 3.8 million households have received the handouts, covering 59 percent of the households in the country.

He was replying Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu), who also asked if the scheme would be continued into the future.

Najib said this would depend on the state of revenue collection in coming years, also stressing that such aid is given to all those that qualify and that “there is no favouritism”.

pas muktamar 130610 nasharuddin mat isa 1 Asked by Nasharuddin Mat Isa (left) (PAS-Bachok) why the disbursement has been carried out by BN component parties, Najib dismissed the issue, saying that the mechanism is not important.

“What is important is that those who qualify got the aid with no regard to their political affiliations,” said the PM.

The federal government has continued to argue that there is no ulterior motive behind the BR1M payments, calling it an effort to alleviate the burden of the rakyat in the face of the rising cost of living.

Pakatan leaders, however, have said the scheme is a cheap way for the government to buy votes from the needy, especially in light of the next general election being due by early next year.

‘Allocation exceeded’

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby later, PKR’s Indera Mahkota parliamentarian Azan Ismail claimed that the government has spent RM0.12 billion more than the allocation approved for BR1M in Budget 2012.

NONE “In the budget, it was stated that RM1.8 billion would be allocated for the programme. But now Najib has said that RM1.92 billion was spent (and that) the figure might be increased further to address demand from Sabah.

“If this is to be the last parliamentary session (before the 13th general election) and if a supplementary budget is not tabled, then the excess amount will be deemed to have been spent without approval (from the Dewan Rakyat).”

Demanding an explanation from Najib, he added: “We are not against the programme to assist the poor but one can’t use public funds carelessly.”