SEMPORNA: Allocations for Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) and Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (Sara) have increased from about RM10 billion to RM15 billion over the past two years, reflecting the Government’s efforts to help Malaysians cope with the rising cost of living.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan (pic) said Sabah has about 800,000 Sara recipients who are also STR recipients.
“Alhamdulillah, for Sabah, the Sara utilisation rate is more than 99 per cent,” he told reporters after a Sara outreach programme at Koperasi Anugerah Hj Badji on Pulau Bum Bum here, recently.
“This shows that even though some areas may be remote, the use of Sara is not a constraint and people are still able to benefit from the assistance,” he said.
Amir Hamzah said the Government was expanding the Sara merchant network nationwide by bringing more cooperatives, particularly small village shops, into the programme to provide recipients with easier access to essential goods.
He said there were currently nearly 14,500 Sara outlets nationwide offering more than 140,000 eligible products, with the range expanded since last year to include frozen food.
As of Aug 7, the number of Sara merchants had increased significantly from about 700 in 2024 to 14,068 nationwide, including 1,495 in Sabah, 32 in Semporna and 115 in Tawau.
Koperasi Anugerah Hj Badji is the 33rd Sara merchant in Semporna and the only participating outlet on Pulau Bum Bum, where more than 25,000 residents are eligible for Sara Untuk Semua, while 3,300 qualify for STR and monthly Sara assistance.
Amir Hamzah said participating outlets in Sabah were also encouraged to provide dedicated shelf space for local products, enabling small traders to promote their goods while ensuring recipients could access products suited to local preferences.
He said the Government would continue identifying communities facing accessibility constraints to ensure distance, sea crossings or remote locations did not prevent eligible recipients from benefiting from Sara.
Amir Hamzah also announced that Phase Three STR payments would begin being credited into recipients’ bank accounts.
