KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28) : The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has reiterated its stance to not compromise on its members’ retirement future by supporting the discontinuation of any more withdrawals of EPF savings via the i-Citra scheme.

In a statement on Tuesday (Dec 28), the provident fund said the roll-out of i-Lestari and i-Sinar withdrawals in 2020, followed by i-Citra in July 2021, had been exceptional in nature as these initiatives were meant to meet the urgent cash flow needs of members during the Movement Control Orders and the subsequent economic slowdown.

“As of October 2021, a total of RM101 billion has been withdrawn under the three withdrawal schemes. This is equivalent to 22% of the total RM530 billion of the government stimulus programme as support for Malaysians as a whole.

“The withdrawals have inevitably led to 6.1 million members now having less than RM10,000 in their EPF accounts, of which 3.6 million have less than RM1,000, levels at which members are not able to guarantee their retirement,” the EPF said.

It added that the majority of those who have made emergency withdrawals were Bumiputera members. As a result, 4.4 million or 54% of Bumiputera members now have less than RM10,000, and two million or 25% have less than RM1,000.

“This is particularly worrying as the numbers show the increasing percentage of members not meeting the EPF Basic Savings threshold of RM240,000 which is the minimum amount members should have when they reach age 55 in order to have a decent retirement,” said EPF.

Meanwhile, the provident fund also said that in addition to the depletion of individual future income, the EPF is also concerned that any more leakage would erode its position as a provident fund and trustee to members’ retirement future.

As a trustee, the EPF has a fiduciary duty to uphold the equitable interest of all its members, more so when there are still millions of members who maintain their savings untouched and hope for better returns that would see them through their golden years, it said.

“Currently, there are more than RM270 billion EPF savings that can be withdrawn at any time by EPF members who have reached above age 55 or 60, or those who have more than RM1 million in their EPF account.

“It is feared that such erosion of trust towards the EPF may force these members to withdraw en masse, thus causing a negative impact to the country’s markets as the EPF is a major pillar in the holding of capital market and financial investment assets in the country,” it elaborated.

Separately, the EPF also expressed sympathy to Malaysians caught in the recent floods and added that it has offered a RM10 million allocation as part of the GLIC/GLC Disaster Response Network.

“With the measures put in place to support the recovery of the economy, the EPF is hopeful that this will go a long way towards addressing the needs of the rakyat while reassuring members that it remains committed to its mandate and purpose of securing future retirement wellbeing for members,” it said.