More than RM312.6 million has been spent under the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) one-off cash aid initiative since it began on Aug 31, says the finance ministry.
The ministry said more than 4.8 million people have used their RM100 cash aid to purchase necessities.
In a statement, it said the initiative’s fourth day today saw RM117.1 million in sales, involving 1.8 million recipients, compared with RM76.8 million in sales by 1.1 million recipients yesterday.
The rate of successful transactions also rose to 99.7%, up from 95% recorded yesterday.
“Efforts to enhance and expand system processing capacity over the past three days have contributed to the system stability achieved today,” it said.
The first day of the initiative’s roll-out on Aug 31 saw many people report problems with buying items, as the system struggled to cope with the heavy demand.
The ministry later apologised, saying the MyKasih platform was overwhelmed. On Aug 31, the successful transaction rate was at 79%.
The system was initially designed to take about 2,200 transactions per minute, but demand hit more than 5,000 per minute. Before Aug 31, the previous peak was 540 transactions per minute in April.
The ministry then upgraded the capacity to handle 15,000 transactions per minute, and the system stabilised in the next few days.
The government also warned people of websites claiming to be “registration portals” for SARA, saying all they needed was their MyKad to make payment.
