The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is considering to offer contributors the choice of opting for a syariah-compliant retirement savings scheme or to stick to the existing conventional scheme.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the initiative was targeted to be implemented in 2017, but a study on its execution would first have to be done.
“We also need to amend the EPF Act 1991 to enable the contributors to make a choice, while we also have to improve the investment, saving and withdrawal systems,” he said in reply to Nasrudin Hassan (PAS-Temerloh) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday.
Nasrudin had asked whether EPF intended to ensure that contributions from Muslim contributors would be invested in syariah-compliant investment portfolios.
Ahmad said EPF had always upheld its mandate of ethics by not investing in sectors that were categorised as unethical (from the syariah perspective).
“The EPF does not invest in the gambling and liquor sectors, industries that make and sell firearms for the purpose of war, or those that serve the interest of countries that have no diplomatic relations with Malaysia such as Israel.”
He said EPF would not separate the contributions according to the contributors’ religion or race as the investments made were for the benefit of all members regardless of race and religion.
“The issuing of the annual dividends is also based on the cumulative income from the Islamic and conventional investment instruments,” he said.
Ahmad said EPF was always expanding its investment in syariah-compliant instruments, whereby until December 2014, 40 per cent of its assets comprised syariah-compliant investments. — Bernama