PUTRAJAYA (March 18): The government has identified 4,752 localities having individuals at risk of being excluded from future government aid due to lacking Central Database Hub (Padu) registration and updates, according to Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli.

These localities, which house residents in the B40 (Bottom 40% income group) and lower half M40 (altogether B60) category, according to Rafizi, have not registered for prior government assistance programmes such as Rahmah Cash Aid (STR), nor have registered for Padu.

“Therefore, the focus of the ministry during these last two weeks until [Padu closes for updates on March 31] is to improve the registration of individuals and households, especially in these areas that we have identified as being at risk of exclusion,” he said during a press conference on Monday (March 18).

These localities were identified based on the government's existing data and 5.43 million individuals registered on Padu as at March 17, according to Rafizi. 

A locality refers to the residence of a group of local people who have clear social lines such as villages, housing estates and condominiums.

Rafizi said the bulk of these localities at risk are in the Klang Valley with Selangor leading at 1,282 localities, followed by Kuala Lumpur (992), then comes Sarawak (765), Sabah (620), Johor (271), Penang (243), Kelantan (228), and Kedah (157).

As for others, Pahang had a total of 70 localities identified, Perak (67), Terengganu (35), Negeri Sembilan (8), Perlis (7), Putrajaya (5) and Melaka (2).

The government can proceed with existing government data for targeted subsidies, Rafizi said. However, Padu was opened for the public to update their data in order to mitigate exclusion risk.

“When we map the government data so far, including the list of STR recipients and prior [aid programmes], these 4,752 localities are identified because it shows that there is a risk of exclusion.

“If you look at the list of apartments, for those of us in [the] Klang Valley, in KL, we know that some of these apartments have low-income groups, so there should be recipients of government aid in these apartments but government data so far shows that there are none,” he said.  

“This means that even with existing data, past [social aid] registration, screening, there is still an exclusion risk,” he stressed.

Rafizi said a town hall session will be held on March 23 at the MBSA Convention Centre in Shah Alam, where representatives of these identified localities in Klang Valley will be invited to raise awareness and improve registration.

Rafizi recognised that some households genuinely decided not to register for Padu as they believe that they will not qualify for government assistance.

Similarly, there are individuals or households who choose to not register for Padu as they believe that as they previously qualified for STR, they will therefore continue to qualify for future government assistance.

However, a head of household in the upper end of M40 group with several children, who have not received aid previously, may qualify for government assistance after taking into account higher expenses, the minister said.

“This means, it's best to register. Because even for those who say 'I’ve been in STR before so there’s no need to register as I’ll continue to get it’, that depends on the approach to be decided by the government, because the approach to decide on who qualifies, varies,” he said.