PUTRAJAYA — Treasury secretary-general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican today urged recipients of the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) aid not to rush to redeem their credit, reminding them that the RM100 allocation remains valid until December 31, 2025.
He said the MyKasih system, which powers the transactions, has been upgraded to handle up to 15,000 transactions simultaneously, following initial slowdowns last week.
“Although it is a working day, it is understood that many still went to the shops to redeem their credit. However, the situation has improved in terms of capacity today.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and further enhance capacity to ensure an improved customer experience, so that transactions can proceed smoothly, as all SARA recipients had previously enjoyed,” he said at a press conference here, as quoted by Malay Mail Online
The system had been strained on August 31 when requests surged to over 5,000 per minute, exceeding its capacity of 2,200 concurrent transactions. This led to queues and incomplete transactions at some supermarkets and shops.
Johan said that despite the challenges, the system did not crash and has since been patched to support larger volumes. Supermarkets have reported smoother transactions in the past two days.
He added that SARA recipients should not feel pressured to use the credit immediately, as it can be utilised at more than 7,300 registered outlets nationwide until the end of next year.
The aid programme has already seen RM110 million in spending within two days, with more than 1.7 million recipients making purchases nationwide. – September 2, 2025