EPF withdrawal: No shortcut chosen for political gains, says Rafizi

SHAH ALAM - The government has an obligation to protect the people and not choose shortcuts just to gain political popularity, says Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.

In a Facebook video yesterday, Rafizi said the reason for the government to not allow targeted Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals is to protect the people especially those at risk and those who do not have enough retirement funds.

Rafizi said, allowing further withdrawals will reduce the people's retirement savings, adding that a total of RM145 billion EPF contributions were allowed to be withdrawn by the previous administration.

He said shrinking funds would limit EPF's ability to diversify and strengthen investment strategies to get better profits.

"This will have an impact on other contributors even if they do not withdraw their EPF contributions because if the overall return is low, then other contributors will also bear the impact.

"This is why most of the EPF contributors do not have enough savings in their old age.

"For that reason, as announced in the Budget 2023 Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the government's action to disallow any more EPF withdrawals was to increase contributions and old-age savings for the contributors," he said.

Commenting further, Rafizi who is the Pandan MP explained that the reasons why the government is firm in not allowing EPF withdrawals is mainly to ensure contributors have enough savings for their old age.

He also added that if a contributor dies, the savings will be given to their next-of-kin.

"Even if the contributor dies, the contributions in EPF will go to their next-of-kin," he said.

Rafizi stressed that the government has a responsibilty to protect the people and choose a path that brought good to all.

"That's why the government choose a path that brings good to all, and we did not choose a short-cut to gain temporary political popularity and leave the problem to other leaders in the future to solve," he said.

Rafizi was responding to the walk-out staged by opposition MPs during the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday ( Monday) when the motion to debate the issue of targeted EPF withdrawal was rejected.