The government is looking for a more suitable way to reduce the burden on the people without taking out the savings of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF).
Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim stressed that EPF savings are an important matter to prevent people from suffering when it comes time to retire.
“Our EPF has explained… we used to ask for a lot to be released. So the remaining RM10,000 or RM5,000, those who want to spend that have to think about what our options are.
“If you want to withdraw RM5,000 (for example) in four years’ pension, what do you want to do? So I think the coverage must be fair so that we know that if you follow his money, let him go out. But if his money is RM5,000, he will get out RM3,000, pension for five more years, what about having more children? That’s something to think about.
“So we are looking for a way to reduce his burden without creating a burden when he retires later,” he told the media after delivering a Lecture on Education Reform for Malaysia’s Future Well-being at UNISEL Bestari Jaya here on Thursday.
On January 16, the Prime Minister said that it would be better for the government to find other methods apart from the EPF withdrawal to help ease the burden of the people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is because, explained Anwar, a number of EPF contributors have a very small amount of savings and this will affect their needs after retirement.
The government accepted the urge to give consideration so that contributors are allowed to apply for another withdrawal scheme of RM10,000 to RM30,000 from the EPF on an ‘on-off’ basis.
The memorandum requesting the withdrawal was submitted by the President of the Malaysian People’s Activist Organization (Prorakyat), Khairul Anuar Othman to the Prime Minister.
Previously, UMNO Youth also requested the government to allow the targeted withdrawal of EPF money to help reduce the financial burden of the people.
Its leader, Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said he conveyed the request to Anwar when the leader attended the first meeting of the Unity Government Secretariat at the UMNO Headquarters, Menara Dato’ Onn, Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday.
Meanwhile, commenting on the presentation of Budget 2023 on 24 February, the Prime Minister said that the budget will give priority to efforts to deal with the deficit, digital, food security and for the comfort of the people, especially the cost of living issue.
“I will announce the others during the Budget later,” added Anwar.
