Putrajaya allows another round of EPF withdrawals

The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) will open applications for a new round of special withdrawals from April 1 to April 30, following Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement earlier today.

In a statement, it said members aged below 55 years old will be eligible to apply, with payments starting April 20.

“Members are allowed to withdraw a maximum amount of RM10,000 and minimum RM50 and must fully utilise their savings balance in Account 2 first before accessing their Account 1.

“Further details will be updated soon,” it said today.

Ismail Sabri had announced the fourth round of special EPF withdrawals this afternoon.

“However, I urge contributors to maintain their savings unless the situation really requires it.

“I hope contributors will think carefully before making withdrawals, for the sake of their future,” he said in a televised address.

Ismail Sabri said Putrajaya decided to conduct the withdrawal scheme based on research and observation on the ongoing recovery phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"There are those among 'Keluarga Malaysia' who are still affected financially and are trying to rebuild their lives.

"The government hears. We have studied appeals from all for this withdrawal programme," he added.

Fourth time for such schemes

This is the fourth special withdrawal scheme since 2020. A whopping RM101 billion was withdrawn from the previous three schemes.

During the recently concluded Johor election campaign, both BN and Pakatan Harapan had urged Putrajaya to allow more withdrawals.

On Monday, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz warned that if the government allowed another one-off scheme in which RM10,000 can be withdrawn, then 6.3 million people will qualify.

Thus, a maximum of RM63 billion can be withdrawn and this will force EPF to sell off some of its assets.

He also noted that EPF’s dividend for conventional savings for 2021 could have reached 6.7 percent, but only 6.1 percent was reached due to the previous rounds of withdrawals.

“This means RM5.4 billion in terms of the additional dividend could have been distributed to all EPF members if those withdrawals had not been made.

“This loss of RM5.4 billion from the dividend has caused about 5.3 million members, who have never withdrawn their savings through any of the withdrawal schemes previously, to be forced to accept lower returns on their savings.

“I would like to ask all the YBs, who also represent the contributors who have never withdrawn their savings: is this fair?” Zafrul told the Dewan Rakyat.

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