PM: RM500 Hari Raya gift for all civil servants, pensioners

KUALA LUMPUR: All civil servants and government pensioners will get an Aidilfitri special payment of RM500 each before Hari Raya which is likely to fall on Sept 10.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said in a statement the payment was for the more than 1.24 million civil servants in Grades 1 to 54 and 590,000 government pensioners.

"The decision (to make the payment) was made after taking into account the welfare of civil servants and government pensioners, especially with a view to easing the cost of making preparations to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri," said Najib, who is also the finance minister.

The payment would incur a total cost of RM934.6mil, that is, RM639.6mil for the payment to the civil servants and RM295mil for the pensioners, he said. - Bernama