LABUAN: The RM100 one-off Sara assistance distributed to 22 million Malaysians through 7,300 registered supermarkets has certainly brought smiles as both parties benefit, but the initiative has not been spared from frowns as well.
Praising the programme, the owner of a mini-mart here, R. Gani, said: “It is certainly a great effort with widespread impact felt by every Malaysian family.
“But it would be better if the purchase of essential items under the Sara aid is widened to include more outlets in rural urban areas.”Gani noted that though the sales items were limited to essential goods like rice, cooking oil, eggs, etc., which are controlled items generating no significant profit, “a registered grocer could still benefit from the likely sales of other items not under Sara aid to customers.”He said many medium-size outlets are qualified to join the scheme.
“With more retailers, the programme will be more orderly without long queues at the payment counters.” When the scheme was launched on Aug 31, there were reports that the system was overloaded and crashed.
Gani said the Sara programme scored top marks compared to other subsidies as it was simple and convenient without bureaucracy.
