More than 80 per cent of EPF members do not meet this RM240,000 threshold at the moment and further withdrawals could worsen the situation. – Bernama photo
KUCHING (December 18): The Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) and its 18 member associations strongly support the call by various associations, NGOs, employer and labour organisations that there should not be any further withdrawal allowed from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
There should be no further withdrawal until age 60 at the very least and unless a member has savings in excess of RM1 million, in which case the excess could be withdrawn.
SBF noted that a sum of more than RM101 billion was withdrawn from EPF under the various programmes announced by the government in the past two years.
This has severely depleted EPF members savings, putting Malaysians in danger of living in abject poverty during retirement.
SBF noted with great concern that 6.1 million EPF members have less than RM10,000 to retire on.
Another 3.1 million member have less than RM50,000 and a further 1.5 million have less than RM100,000 to retire on.
All in all, 10.8 million EPF members have less than RM100,000 in savings when they face retirement.
Poverty as currently defined, is having at least RM1,000 a month to sustain basic living.
This works out to RM240,000 of savings required assuming a life expectancy of 20 years after retirement.
More than 80 per cent of EPF members do not meet this RM240,000 threshold at the moment and further withdrawals could worsen the situation.
SBF further noted that the worse affected are the Bumiputras and they are expected to have less than RM200 a month to live on during retirement.
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