Budget 2023: Cola for JPA scholars to increase by RM100

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) rates for Public Service Department (JPA) scholars in the country will be standardised and increased by RM100.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz when tabling the Supply Bill 2023 at Parliament today said it would make the COLA to be between RM730 and more than RM980 per month.

He said this followed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's announcement to increase the Living Allowance for Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) and Petronas students

Tengku Zafrul said that for next year, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) will be allocated RM15.1 billion with RM3.8 billion provided as scholarships and study loans to ensure that the children of Malaysian Family can pursue tertiary education.

“Next year, a large part of the RM6.6 billion allocation to MARA, Yayasan Peneraju and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) will be used to provide Bumiputera with access to education loans as well as opportunities to pursue professional fields such as engineering,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul also announced an allocation of RM10 million to encourage public universities to cultivate green campus initiatives and more than RM300 million to upgrade and maintain public university facilities.

A total of RM35 million was also allocated to continue the Malaysia Research and Education Network (MYREN) project in public universities, polytechnics and community colleges to upgrade bandwidth capacity.

An allocation of RM364 million has also been set aside for research and development (R&D) activities which will be led by MOHE and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI).