E-WALLET players Touch N Go Digital (TGD) and Boost have been identified to be among the selected vendors for the government’s e-Tunai Rakyat initiative, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Ministry of Finance had appointed Khazanah Nasional Bhd to facilitate and coordinate the rollout of the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative, which involves close collaboration with various parties including the National Registration Department (JPN) and the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN).
The implementation work will cover establishing the necessary mechanisms, processes and procedures for the initiative, including a merchant network, with Khazanah bringing selected e-wallet players on board to provide a ready platform for the initiative’s planned rollout on Jan 1, 2020.
This follows the announcement of an e-wallet system called the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, in a parliamentary session earlier this month. The RM450 mil one-off digital stimulus announced by the Ministry of Finance under Budget 2020 aims to accelerate the use and adoption of e-wallets and digital payments among Malaysian consumers and merchants, especially small enterprises and retail businesses.
Through e-Tunai Rakyat, Malaysians 18 years of age and above and earning less than RM100,000 annually are eligible to receive RM30 each that can be spent on goods and services available through the participating e-wallet service providers of their choice.
Additional incentives from the industry players are also in the pipeline to further encourage users over the two months of the initiative, with the finance minister having shared that the initiative could see more implementations, depending on reception.
“If it is well received, the initiative can be repeated to involve more users, merchants and e-wallet providers,” he told Parliament during the session on Dec 4, 2019. The RM450 mil for the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative comes under the RM50.3 bil allocation to transform Malaysia into an entrepreneurial nation, which includes the transition to a digital economy.
Of the RM50.3 bil, RM21.6 bil was allocated for the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan, with the remainder meant for digitalisation incentives such as the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative. – Dec 19, 2019
