We are disappointed that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has decided to allow its members to withdraw more savings under the Housing Withdrawal Scheme and the Education Withdrawal Scheme.

By allowing members to make annual withdrawals to settle their loans and that of their spouses and allowing withdrawals for a child's diploma course, there will be less money for retirement.

We are surprised that EPF has decided to introduce more withdrawals when it has often stated that members' savings are insufficient to support their retirement for the next 20 years or so.

According to EPF, a contributor would only have an average of RM99,000 in his savings upon retirement. This is clearly insufficient because for a retiree to survive 20 years on a monthly income of RM1, 000, he would already need RM240,000.

EPF, too, has also said that about 70 percent of those who withdrew their EPF savings upon reaching 55 years of age, spent it all within the next three years.

Knowing what it knows, EPF should not have allowed further depletion of retirement savings.

We therefore urge EPF to revoke the new withdrawals or increase the employer's EPF contribution from the present 12 percent to at least 14 percent.

The writer is the president of the Consumers Association of Penang.