KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced a new round of cash aid as part of additional Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (BKM) funds to combat rising prices, following the withdrawal of the subsidy for chicken and eggs.

"Taking into account cost of living challenges and recent food price increases, the government has decided to provide additional cash assistance to the B40 group of RM100 for households and RM50 for those who are single,” he announced during a special televised press conference today.

Ismail Sabri said that the BKM Phase 2 payment will involve an allocation of RM1.11 billion and each BKM recipient will get up to RM400 depending on their respective BKM qualification category.

He also said that the additional cash assistance paid together with the BKM Phase 2 payment was to the tune of an additional allocation of RM630 million.

The payment will benefit nearly 8.6 million recipients comprising four million households, 1.2 million senior citizens and 3.4 million singletons, he added.

"Each eligible recipient will receive the payment in stages starting June 27 (Monday) involving a total allocation of RM1.74 billion.

"This payment is also to ease the financial burden of the B40 group, especially since Hari Raya Aidiladha is soon, and will be channelled as scheduled,” he said.

Ismail Sabri said the payment status check can be made starting June 22 via https://bkm.hasil.gov.my

The Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs Ministry said yesterday that the government enforced a ceiling price on chicken and eggs to help alleviate the rising price of the two staple goods, but that this had led to price distortion in the market.

"The government is very concerned with the current situation and is always committed to addressing price and supply issues.

"The ministry will continue to increase its efforts to help reduce the burden of the people and will not hesitate to enforce existing laws under the jurisdiction of the ministry, such as the Price Control and Anti Profiteering Act 2011 and the Control of Supply Act 1961, to ensure that the price and supply issues are under control,” it said in a statement.