Ameer, however, said this was not the time to assign blame and reminded shoppers that they have until the end of the year to redeem the aid.
“The government, the finance ministry, and the industry have all been briefed on the disbursement process and there have been plenty of discussions.
“But at this point, the important thing is for the public to be reminded that there is no hurry to spend the RM100. They have until Dec 31 to use the money,” he told FMT.
Ameer said the system had not crashed but was experiencing lags, taking three to four times longer to process purchases.
“This has caused long queues at the checkout counters. We’ve been facing the issue since 8.30am,” he added.
He urged those who do not need the SARA aid immediately to wait, so that lower-income groups who truly rely on the assistance can use their RM100 first.
“This way the system can run more smoothly. Those who have received the RM100, why don’t you wait a few weeks and let the B40 who really need the goods shop first.”
Ameer said his staff were doing their best to explain to customers that the system is slow, and advised them to use cash as the regular counters were still operating as usual.
The one-off aid was announced by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last month as an immediate effort to ease the cost of living burden. He called it an initiative that will benefit 22 million Malaysians, and involved an allocation of RM2 billion.
The aid, which is credited into every eligible citizen’s MyKad, can be used to make purchases across 4,500 shops nationwide. Beneficiaries are advised to check the SARA website or the official MyKasih website for details.
However, netizens took to social media today to complain that they were unable to redeem their RM100 aid due to problems with the MyKasih system.
Many shoppers were reported to have abandoned their trolleys filled with items out of frustration, after being informed about the technical problems with the cash aid redemption.
In addition to Mydin outlets, netizens reported facing similar issues at other hypermarkets, including Lotus’s, Giant, and HeroMarket.
The finance ministry and MyKasih have apologised for the inconvenience caused by the glitch in the system.
“Due to the exceptionally high volume of transactions on the first day of SARA disbursement, the MyKasih terminal system experienced delays in processing as a result of the surge in purchases,” they said in a joint statement.
They stressed that transactions can still be done, but some retail outlets may face difficulties in processing payments due to the unusually heavy system demand.
“The MyKasih technical team is actively working to resolve the issue and we expect the system to return to normal soon.”