Transport minister Loke Siew Fook said this initiative would involve 35,000 taxi and rental car drivers as well as 15,000 school bus drivers.

“Although there is no specific budgetary allocation, the transport ministry has successfully generated funds through the sale of the special ‘GOLD’ vehicle registration plates, which will also be used to sponsor other welfare initiatives by the ministry,” Loke said when launching the initiative here today.

In the 2024 budget, Putrajaya’s contributions to the social security scheme for the self-employed was increased from 80% to 90%, with RM100 million allocated.

Loke said the transport ministry would now cover the remaining 10% for these drivers, involving RM23.30 each.

For gig workers in the e-hailing and p-hailing sectors, the minister said some companies had agreed to assist the workers in contributing the remaining 10% to the scheme.

Under this scheme, if a self-employed individual who is covered dies due to a work-related incident, their parents or spouse are entitled to receive a pension of RM1,395 per month for life.

“In addition to providing full sponsorship (of contributions), another crucial element to ensure comprehensive coverage for taxi, rental car, and school bus drivers is to enrol them automatically for the scheme,” Loke said.

Meanwhile, human resources minister Steven Sim voiced hope that the initiative taken by the transport ministry would be replicated by other ministries and government agencies that deal with self-employed workers.

He said Socso aimed to ensure that at least 500,000 self-employed workers would contribute to the scheme.

“Up until March 3, only 433,881 active contributors to the scheme for the self-employed were recorded by Perkeso,” Sim said, adding that this was only 14.56% of the 2.98 million self-employed workers in Malaysia.