KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — The government does not intend to allow workers to make further special withdrawals from their Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) accounts, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said today.
He said 8.1 million members had withdrawn a total of RM145 billion from the national pension fund when the past administrations loosened restrictions to help them cope with their financial woes when the Covid-19 pandemic first struck and now has to draw a line to prevent a bigger crisis from happening.
“Firstly, Covid-19 is over. If we look at the moratorium, the repayment loan is no longer there, another special subsidy and wages are no longer there,” he told reporters in Parliament, explaining the reasons why the government is not keen to let workers tap into their EPF accounts.
He added that median savings for Malaysians have shrunk by 20 per cent post Covid-19 to RM8,100 last year compared to RM16,600 in 2019.
He also pointed out that 51.5 per cent of the over 13 million EPF members today, or some 6.7 million people, are above 55 years old and have less than RM10,000 in savings.
“This is why we cannot allow more withdrawals,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had previously hinted last month that his administration would prefer to look for other ways to help Malaysians who’ve lost their income sources than let them dig deeper into their EPF savings.
