“If you don’t like the name Adam50, you can rebrand it as GuanEng50, Maszlee50 or MatSabu50. Just don’t abolish it.”
In an obvious jibe at the current government’s move of renaming several initiatives by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said this in calling for the scheme to be retained.
Under the Adam50 scheme, a baby born between Jan 1, 2018 and 2022 would receive RM200 via units of ASB (for Bumiputera) and AS1M (for non-Bumiputera) as long as the child is registered within a year of its date of birth – but the savings could only be withdrawn after the child reaches 18 years of age.
KUALA LUMPUR: “If you don’t like the name Adam50, you can rebrand it as GuanEng50, Maszlee50 or MatSabu50. Just don’t abolish it.”
In an obvious jibe at the current government’s move of renaming several initiatives by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said this in calling for the scheme to be retained.
Amanah Dana Anak Malaysia 2050 (Adam50), was introduced in January by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Today, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) group chairman, Tan Seri Zeti Akhtar Aziz announced that the scheme would be discontinued by year-end.
Saddened by this development, Najib took to Facebook to lament how “another good aid and incentive for the rakyat has been scrapped by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government”.
He also dismissed the reason behind the discontinuation, labelling the country’s RM1 trillion debt as a “PH fairy tale”.
Zeti had earlier said the response to the programme has been poor, with only about 25 per cent of babies born in 2018 registered thus far.
She said the government had allocated RM10 million for the fund which has been fully utilised and “given the fact that the current government’s financial position needs to be strengthened, it is not able to allocate further funds”.
“Adam50 is the first fund in the country’s history aimed at encouraging personal savings for young parents.
“My intention in coming up with Adam50 was to encourage our rakyat to think about saving up for the future. Many of us cannot gauge what we will need or what our children will require in the future.
“When they have an ASB or AS1M (Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, now called Amanah Saham Malaysia 3), parents can contribute bit by bit and eventually it will grow and they will be able to cover their children’s financial needs when they enter university.
“Even if parents don’t add on to it, the initial RM200 will grow to around RM587, but if you add RM10 a month, it will increase to RM4,000, while RM50 a month will become RM20,000 and RM100 will become RM40,000 when the child hits 18,” he remarked.
Under the scheme, a baby born between Jan 1, 2018 and 2022 would receive RM200 via units of ASB (for Bumiputera) and AS1M (for non-Bumiputera) as long as the child is registered within a year of its date of birth – but the savings could only be withdrawn after the child reaches 18 years of age.
Source: NST Online
