• MAIN
  • LOCAL
  • NATIONAL
  • WORLD
  • SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
  • KENYALANG PORTRAITS
  • IBAN SECTION
  • VIDEOS
  • ADS
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
Thursday, January 28, 2021
  • MAIN
  • ABOUT US
  • DISCLAIMER
  • CONTACT US
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
DayakDaily
  • MAIN
  • LOCAL
  • NATIONAL
  • WORLD
  • SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
  • KENYALANG PORTRAITS
  • IBAN SECTION
  • VIDEOS
  • ADS

Union chief: Persistent EPF withdrawals make bad situation worse

Nov 18, 2020 @ 12:35
Andrew Lo

28shares
  • 28

KUCHING, Nov 18: Persistent withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) coffers by the government over the past several years do not augur well for the pension fund and its contributors, asserts Sarawak Bank Employees’ Union chief executive officer Andrew Lo.

He pointed out persistent withdrawals such as reducing the rate of the employees’ contribution, allowing for various withdrawals, even for haj, has exacerbated the situation.

“Please don’t kill the patient to cure the disease. Please remember that private sector employees do not have a pension when they retire, unlike civil servants, ministers and Members of Parliament,” Lo highlighted in a statement issued here today.

He asserted that such a move was embarrassing due to the low wage policy of the government for the past 60 years.

“In most countries, people get rich before they get old. (But)…Malaysians get old before we get rich,” he added.


Lo who is also the Malaysia Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak secretary emphasised what was even more pathetic was that those who need the withdrawals most, do not even have sufficient funds in their accounts.

“According to Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz, some 32 per cent of Employees Provident Fund contributors (EPF) have a balance of around RM1,000 in their Account 1. Tengku Zafrul also said 10 per cent have a balance of around RM5,000 and below in their Account 1. That means a mind boggling 42 per cent of contributors have less than RM5,000 in their Account 1 which is meant for retirement,” Lo lamented.

Lo disclosed both SBEU and MTUC Sarawak fully understand the statement by the EPF that it needs to liquidate assets to fund the withdrawals that the government imposes on it during the budget.

“According to reports, EPF will have to liquidate its assets and rebalance its portfolio to make billions of ringgit available to contributors in need of funds to lessen the financial turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a report said.

“So, we fully understand that such withdrawals would meant that EPF would lose a great opportunity to take advantage of investing in high quality assets with low valuations,” he noted.

Lo pointed out that such a move will impact EPF’s future earnings, quality of investments, and compromise dividend pay outs.

“Most disturbing, it compromises the ability of EPF to serve it sole purpose: to provide for retirement savings of its contributors. We must not sacrifice our retirement savings for immediate gratifications,” he added. — DayakDaily

Previous articleNanta: Harga barang di Sabah dan Sarawak diseragam
Next articleAdventurous anteater rescued from tree
editorJY

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

List of premises patronised by Covid-19 cases released on Jan 27, 2021

Hospital Miri larang kemasukan pelawat ke wad

Tiga lokasi dikenalpasti untuk bina depoh tahanan sementara baharu di Sarawak

Ads

Follow us on Facebook

Recent Posts

  • Baru Bian: I have secured RM1.3 billion worth of projects for Ba’kelalan
  • State health dept assures vaccine clinical trial will be done according to ethics
  • KKM memaklumkan terdapat 3,680 kes Covid-19 hari ini
  • Covid-19: Huge drop to 70 new infections but one fatality
  • Pandemic status in S’wak at containment stage, but war rages on
  • Dalat, Bintulu, Kanowit, Beluru, Miri, Sibu, Kuching together notch up 1,702 infections
  • Total Covid-19 patients hospitalised, quarantined hits 1,632 today
  • Two new Covid-19 clusters identified in Kuching and Serian
  • NGO collaborates with EU nations to give skills training to urban poor
  • List of premises patronised by Covid-19 cases released on Jan 27, 2021
dayakdaily is a news portal that aims to be the community platform for those who have interesting stories to share. Stories that are closer to your heart and your little towns that hardly gets to be highlighted in the mainstream media and we are here to share your thoughts to the masses.
Contact us: editor.dayakdaily@gmail.com
  • MAIN
  • LOCAL
  • NATIONAL
  • WORLD
  • SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
  • KENYALANG PORTRAITS
  • IBAN SECTION
  • VIDEOS
  • ADS
© dayakdaily copyright 2017 - 2020
Sorry, you cannot copy content from this website. Please share the content instead.