CAMERON HIGHLANDS: A total of 28,828 of the 41,000 non-pensionable Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) veterans across the country have received their Living Allowance (BSH) of RM300 a month as last April 30.
Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari said the government had increased the allocation to three folds to the ATM Veterans Affairs Department (JHEV), from RM54 million to RM118 million in 2023 and RM244 million this year.
He said the increase was also due to the increasing number of recipients.
“When I was first tasked with this job, the number of recipients was about 6,000 to 10,000 ATM veterans. Now, it has increased to more than 28,000 BSH recipients,” he told a media conference at the state-level MADANI Veterans Programme (PVM) in Kampung Kuala Boh here, today.
Adly said the BSH is given to non-pensionable ATM veterans who are classified as hardcore poor.
Earlier, he visited five ATM veterans and handed out food baskets and other donations to them.