PMO concedes to bungling figures in televised address
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) today has clarified that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's televised address yesterday contained some erroneous figures including for financial aid to drivers of various public transport.
The errors - all involving government cash handouts in response to the Covid-19 outbreak - are as follows:
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) today has clarified that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's televised address yesterday contained some erroneous figures including for financial aid to drivers of various public transport.
The errors - all involving government cash handouts in response to the Covid-19 outbreak - were as follows:
- That "1.4 million" e-hailing drivers had received a RM500 cash handout, amounting to RM10.4 million in total.
- That "477,000" taxi and bus drivers had received a RM600 cash handout, amounting to RM28.8 million in total.
- That "834,000" businesses and "6.7 million" individuals have benefited from the wage subsidy scheme.
The actual figures, according to the PMO, are:
- 68,336 e-hailing drivers, amounting to RM34 million.
- 37,127 taxi and bus drivers, amounting to RM22.2 million.
- 313,000 employers and 2.5 million workers benefited from the wage subsidy scheme.
Yesterday, Muhyiddin's televised speech provided an update on government efforts to inject money into the economy and to warn Malaysians against complacency in taking measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Last night, former transport minister Anthony Loke pointed out that the number of e-hailing drivers originally cited by Muhyiddin was wrong since only 120,000 drivers were registered with the Land Public Transport Agency.
Earlier, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz (above) also conceded that some of the figures cited during the speech were inaccurate.
"Regarding the figures mentioned in the prime minister's speech, some numbers were inaccurate.
"I believe a correction will be announced by the PMO," Zafrul told the Dewan Rakyat earlier.
He said this when asked about the inaccurate figures by Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (Harapan-Kulim Bandar Bharu).
Zafrul added that 4,800 taxi drivers had yet to receive aid as they had not renewed their driver's cards.
Some 3,100 tourist bus drivers, meanwhile, will be receiving their aid totalling RM1.98 million tomorrow.
Report this comment
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.