Kuala Lumpur: The revised 2023 budget will include alternative measures to Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals, deputy finance minister Ahmad Maslan told the Dewan Rakyat.
He was responding to questions from Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera), Syahir Che Sulaiman (PN-Bachok) and Dzulkefly Ahmad (PH-Kuala Selangor) on whether Putrajaya was considering allowing another round of EPF withdrawals.
Ahmad said the problem was that many contributors from the B40 and M40 groups did not have sufficient savings but wanted to make more withdrawals.
He said 6.7 million EPF contributors above the age of 55 have less than RM10,000 left.
“These are accurate numbers,” he said, adding that there will be other measures to help those in the lower-income groups in the budget, “as promised by the prime minister (Anwar Ibrahim) previously”.
Ahmad also said the government will look at ways to increase wages so people can contribute more to their EPF accounts.
Previously, Anwar said the government was opposed to allowing another round of EPF withdrawals over concerns about low savings.
Some 8.1 million EPF members have withdrawn a total of RM145 billion in a series of withdrawals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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