PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s constant calls for the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to allow contributors to withdraw money from their accounts is not in their best interests, Ong Kian Ming said today.
The Bangi MP said these repeated calls for the rakyat to dip into their own EPF savings would have serious long-term personal implications, especially for those contributors in the B40 community who will have very little left in their EPF accounts when they retire.
“The fact that Najib made his call in November for more EPF withdrawals, right after EPF revealed that 3.6 million account holders have less than RM1000 in their accounts, out of which 2 million are Bumiputera members (55 per cent) is an indication that he is not thinking of the long-term interests of EPF contributors, including the Bumiputera community.
“Instead, he is resorting to increasing populist and financially irresponsible ways of appealing to the public, thinking that he can fool them (Rakyat) into believing him and his “Apa malu bossku” rhetoric.
“Umno President, Zahid, is following a similar tactic by calling for EPF withdrawals to continue back in December 2021,“ he said in a statement today.
Ong then pointed out that Najib had already shown that his interest only lay in himself and not members and contributors of EPF when he approved the purchase of Eagle High Point (EHP) by Felda Global Ventures (FGV) at an inflated premium of 70 per cent.
“The deal was pushed through by the then FGV CEO, no doubt with the approval of Najib, at the cost of RM2.3 billion.
“In 2019, Felda Director-General, Dr Othman Omar, lodged a police report claiming that Felda was cheated in the purchase of EHP with an inflated price of more than 300 per cent” he said.
On November 1, Najib had urged the government to raise the maximum withdrawal for the EPF i-Citra facility to RM10,000.
In making the call, Najib said the proposal was not a populist move but stemmed from the urgent need of the people post-Covid-19 pandemic.
Three days later, Najib defended his calls to allow the withdrawals, saying that the move would kickstart the economy.
Last December 14, Zahid also urged the government to allow further withdrawals from the retirement fund to help those still reeling from the economic effects of Covid-19.
Prior to this, EPF had warned its members that using pension savings for any emergency would lead to their having “disastrous” savings in their retirement years.
It said the withdrawals had left 6.1 million members — nearly half the fund’s contributors — with less than RM10,000 in their accounts.
Of that number, 3.6 million members have less than RM1,000, a far cry from the RM240,000 the EPF had set as the minimum amount members should have when they reach the age of 55 in order to have a “decent retirement”.
