By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Feb 25: The Sarawak government could consider providing extra contributions directly to the Employees Provident Fund (EFP) account of Sarawakians, especially when the region recorded a high revenue performance, to help EFP contributors build their savings.
Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng suggested this when commenting on the RM500 contribution by the Federal government to EPF members aged between 40 and 54 who have savings below RM10,000 in their Account 1 announced in the revised Budget 2023.
“This is what Singapore is practising. EPF is Malaysia’s social security savings scheme for citizens which provides higher interest rates earning compared to banks.
“I think it is important to encourage more savings in EPF, and peon fact, contribute voluntarily as well,” he said in his ShallWeeTalk live session on his social media today.
Wee said this should be considered, given that the Sarawak government recorded its best revenue performance at nearly RM12 billion in 2022.
On concerns and misconceptions that retirement savings in EPF will be heavily depleted due to various factors, he added that EFF is being managed by a group of professionals, and so far, there are no records that social security will run out or go banWhenm, when presenting the revised budget in Parliament yesterday (FePrime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim b 24), said the RM500 contribution would benefit more than two million EPF members involving an allocation of almost RM 1 billion.
The Federal government also hopes that everyone with sufficient retirement savings will continue to contribute so that everyone can benefit from this.
Wee is currently on a working visit to Singapore to learn from the Island Republic about its Child-Friendly Cities Initiative as well as measures for the ageing society to better prepare Kuching for the future.
Two days ago (Feb 23), Wee led a delegation from MBKS to pay a courtesy visit to the Unicef Malaysia office in Putrajaya to discuss the CGCI Framework for Kuching and to have a knowledge exchange on the CFCI with the Petaling Jaya City Council. — DayakDaily
