PUTRAJAYA, March 16 — The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will be providing more information soon on the government’s newly-announced move of allowing Malaysians to make a special withdrawal of up to RM10,000 from their savings, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said today.

In a brief statement, Tengku Zafrul said: "Following the Prime Minister YAB Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement today about the special EPF withdrawal of up to RM10,000, I wish to inform that details about that withdrawal will be detailed out by the EPF in the near future.”

"EPF will also announce the necessary steps to tackle the issue of EPF members’ retirement savings that have decreased,” he added.

Earlier, Ismail Sabri had announced that the Malaysian government had agreed to allow this special withdrawal of RM10,000 from EPF funds, following requests from some and amid findings that Malaysians had lost their income and were still rebuilding their lives in the post-pandemic recovery phase. 

Ismail Sabri said the decision to allow Malaysians to dip into their own EPF savings to the tune of RM10,000 was a difficult one as it involved retirement savings, but said it was a middle path between their current desperate needs and savings for the future.

Noting that 7.34 million EPF contributors had made withdrawals totalling RM101 billion since the Covid-19 pandemic began in Malaysia two years ago, the prime minister also urged Malaysians to refrain from using their EPF savings unless they were left with no other options.

On December 28 last year, the EPF said the RM101 billion withdrawals by members from 2020 had resulted in 6.1 million of such contributors having less than RM10,000 left in their EPF savings, including 3.6 million who have less than RM1,000 in their EPF accounts.

Noting that using EPF savings for emergency needs would severely impact members’ savings for their retirement years, the EPF had also expressed concern as it highlighted RM240,000 as the basic savings threshold or the minimum amount that EPF contributors should have by the age of 55 in order to have a decent retirement.

The EPF had at that time also said any future exceptional withdrawals from EPF savings should be deemed unnecessary given the many forms of government financial aid to individuals and businesses to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the floods then.

On March 2, the EPF announced dividend rates of 6.10 per cent for conventional savings and 5.65 per cent dividend for Shariah savings in 2021, with a total payout of RM6.27 billion and RM56.72 billion respectively to its members. These dividend rates were better than those for the previous year.

EPF chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir had at that time said: "The RM101 billion pandemic-related withdrawals since the year 2020 had resulted in 48 per cent of EPF members having less than RM10,000 in their accounts. We hope that this dividend and our continued performance will help us begin the process of rebuilding our members’ retirement savings, as economic recovery takes shape over the course of the year.”