KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — The government will review again all income group categories based on the findings of the Income, Expenditure and Basic Facilities Survey 2022 in the midterm study on the 12th Malaysia Plan 2021-2025, which will begin in the middle of this month.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said an analysis of the survey’s data will be done early next year and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2023.

The review will cover changes in the structure of incomes and expenses, cost of living, demographics, and the location of households.

"The new household income categories will strengthen policy formulation and improve services to the targeted groups,” he added.

He was responding to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Port Dickson) who asked for the latest details of the various income groups — B40, M40, T20 — for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

"The Department of Statistics Malaysia is currently implementing the survey which involves 92,000 households from January 2022 to December 2022,” he said, adding that it was important to get a fuller sampling to study income patterns in 2022.

"The latest income data is based on the 2019 survey whereby the B40 household is one that made less than RM4,850 a month while the M40 household made between RM4,850 and RM10,959 while the T20 group made RM10,960 and above,” he said. — Bernama