_{Press release from Sabah Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board}

KOTA KINABALU: All registered taxi drivers in Sabah will receive a one-off cash assistance of RM600, progressively from June 15 2020.

Sabah Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Chairman Datuk Chin Kim Hiung said there are currently 2,099 registered taxi drivers in Sabah, of which 1,771 have already been approved for the one-off cash assistance, while 328 applications are still under review for approval.

Chin was informed by CVB Sabah’s Director Arfian Julian during a briefing recently that they received a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance on June 2, confirming that the ministry is processing this matter.

Sabah Taxi Association Chairman, Hiew Su Vun, was reported as saying that all taxi drivers under the association have not received any assistance since they raised the issue in April 2020.

In answer to Hiew, Chin explained that the Federal Government is using the taxi driver’s card to issue this assistance.

However, in Sabah taxi drivers do not have such a taxi driver’s card. The delay in disbursement of the RM600 one-off assistance is due to the lack of taxi drivers cards.

“Despite the lack of taxi drivers cards, the one-off assistance will be disbursed to all registered taxi drivers starting from 15 June 2020.

We strongly encourage all registered taxi drivers to apply for the taxi driver’s card in due course,” urged Chin.