| Azlan Othman |
CIVIL servants in the country will be receiving their annual bonuses together with the monthly salaries today.
The much-anticipated payments will definitely help them in meeting expenses during the back-to-school period. The new school term begins on January 2, 2018.
The bonus will also provide government servants with some extra money to settle other financial burdens such as credit card bills and car maintenance costs.
“The bonus is a great reward for all our hard work this year,” said Hajah Lin, a civil servant.
Mohd Rafie bin Haji Tejuddin, Manager of Samima Kiulap branch, said customers have been flocking to their bookstore since last month for children’s stationeries, workbooks, and so on. Some even made reservations for the school textbooks and material early before the school holiday to avoid disappointment and to put themselves at ease during their family holiday.
Meanwhile, an established bus company providing services to Miri and Kota Kinabalu, said their buses have been fully booked for the Christmas holiday and December 31.
A wholesale supplier in Brunei, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said business would be normally quiet following the disbursement of the year-end bonus, as many Bruneians prefer to cross over the border to Miri or Labuan, or fly to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to do their shopping.
Due to the favourable exchange rate, the annual cross-border shopping in Malaysia has become a normal occurrence now.
Statistics from Tourism Malaysia have indicated that during the first eight months of this year, some 1,150,759 visitors from Brunei Darussalam came to Malaysia, a 34 per cent increase in the visitor count compared to the same period last year (January-August 2016), which made Brunei the fifth-largest tourist market for Malaysia.
A total of 1,391,016 visitors from Brunei came to Malaysia in 2016, with the figure standing at 1,133,555 in 2015.
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