KUALA LUMPUR – The government needs to consider the depleting funds of the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) contributors before allowing another round of special withdrawal programmes, said Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari (Gombak-PH).
The lawmaker said the state of the contributors’ remaining savings have become more worrying after several special withdrawal initiatives since the country was struck by the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that some could only afford to spend 68 sen a day after their retirement.
“The government has to decide between its responsibility towards populism and the call raised by the opposition today, so that we are not deceived by the propaganda and choice (to allow withdrawals),” he said during the debate on the motion of thanks to the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The Selangor menteri besar said the country must be prepared to head towards an ageing nation by 2030.
Meanwhile, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (Masjid Tanah-PN) and Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Padang Serai-PN) were of the view that the government needed to consider targeted EPF withdrawals to ease the people’s burdens.
Mas Ermieyati proposed that EPF withdrawals be allowed for contributors who have been working for more than 20 years as they may have a large amount of savings.
“It’s true that there are 13.1 million or 51.5% of EPF contributors with savings of less than RM10,000 who may be newly employed. How about the contributors who have been working for 20 or 25 years who might have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in savings?" she added. – Bernama, February 20, 2023
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