PUTRAJAYA, Feb 23 — Effective next month, a total of 35,000 taxi drivers and 18,000 school bus drivers in the country will benefit from Social Security Organisation (Socso) subscriptions which will be paid fully by the government, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

He said 90 per cent of their Socso subscription will be borne through an allocation from the Finance Ministry, while the Transport Ministry (MOT) is paying the remaining 10 per cent for one year.

"We understand that the Finance Ministry has allocated Socso RM100 million for subscription of up to 90 per cent for taxi drivers, e-hailing, p-hailing and so on.

The remaining 10 per cent has to be contributed by the drivers themselves. So for the taxi and school bus drivers, we will fork out the 10 per cent contribution for one year,” he told a media conference after the ministry’s Sua Kasih Madani programme here today.

The move, he said, was to provide social protection to taxi and school bus drivers in the event of an accident.

Elaborating on the matter, Loke said that he had discussed with Socso the implementation of the initiative, as well as the list of taxi and school bus drivers from the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD).

"We expect to launch this initiative in March. That means taxi drivers and school bus drivers don’t have to contribute a single cent (for Socso subscription) for a year, they just have to register their names,” he said.

"For those who are already registered (with Socso), with the 10 per cent from MOT, they also do not have to pay a single cent,” he said. — Bernama