Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz speaks in Dewan Rakyat, Kuala Lumpur March 14, 2022. — Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 14 — Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz today said that the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) 6.1 per cent dividend for conventional savings for 2021 could have been 6.7 per cent if previous unprecedented Covid-19-related withdrawals were not allowed.
He said this also meant that RM5.4 billion in terms of additional dividend could have been distributed among EPF members.
“Actually, I never said this previously, that without the withdrawals, dividend rates for EPF conventional savings for 2021 supposedly could touch 6.7 per cent compared to 6.1 per cent which was announced recently.
“The loss of the RM5.4 billion (dividend) has resulted in 5.3 million EPF members who previously did not make any withdrawals via any withdrawal schemes, have to receive low dividend rates,” Zafrul told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Zafrul was referring to EPF withdrawals via three programmes namely i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra, which saw 7.3 million members or 58 per cent of 12.7 million members withdraw an amount of RM101 billion ringgit.
He questioned MPs who are still urging the government to allow another final EPF withdrawal on whether this was fair.
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