Finance Minister, YB Lim Guan Eng in his only second Budget speech this year announced an RM450 million allocation to be dispersed to Malaysians irrespective of their background via the eWallet digital channel. Each person will receive RM30 if they were get onto the platform in a collective effort by the government in pushing for a cashless society in Malaysia.

Since then many were wondering which eWallet service provider will be selected and what will be the mechanism in executing this mammoth task. The wait is over as Khazanah Nasional has come out with the statement selecting three eWallet players Boost, TnG Digital and GrabPay as disbursement channels for the Government’s e-Tunai Rakyat initiative.

From 15 January to 14 March 2020, eligible Malaysians aged 18 and older with an annual income of less than RM100,000 stand to benefit from the one-off RM30 stimulus. Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of Boost, shared his excitement that Boost has been selected to be part of the national drive to enhance the country’s digital economy through the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative.

The aim by the Government is to encourage as many users to use e-wallet for their daily need and reduce the dependency of using paper money. It will be also a positive encouragement showing the people that this digital stimulus endorses the e-wallet technology use to be safe and secure for financial transactions. The RM450 million e-Tunai Rakyat initiative is expected to benefit 15 million Malaysians.

As of now users can use the service in over 100,000 merchants nationwide from shopping and dining at major retail and F&B stores or pasar malams, paying for parking and bills, topping up prepaid mobile phone credit, purchase movie or public transport tickets, pay zakat or even making donations. Expect to see more promotions and rewards taking place as the heat builds up when the three battle for transaction value of the RM450 million.

As a year end promotion campaign, Boost is currently giving RM5 for those who verify their accounts.