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PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to extend withdrawals from Account 1 to include those who have suffered pay cuts due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Najib said he initially estimated a total of 4.7 million members who would benefit from the i-Sinar program, with a total withdrawal of up to RM47 billion.
However, he noted that EPF expected only two million members to withdraw a total of 14 billion ringgit, due to its eligibility requirements that limit withdrawals to those who have lost their jobs, been on leave without pay or not. they have another source of income.
“EPF needs to understand that we cannot target only those who are unemployed. The largest group are those with reduced monthly incomes as a result of wage cuts, who have fewer commissions and are underemployed.
“We would not want the i-Sinar scheme to become an ‘I die’ scheme for those who do not meet the eligibility criteria just because they have not lost their jobs,” he said today in a Facebook post.
He urged EPF to open its i-Sinar program to people who have faced a 20% drop in income as a result of the pandemic.
Failure to do so, he warned, could result in desperate people deliberately quitting their jobs or being fired to meet program requirements.
EPF has announced that i-Sinar is an extension of the i-Lestari recall facility, which has now reached an estimated total recall of RM30 billion and will end in March next year.
Applications for i-Sinar, which allows withdrawals of RM 500 per month for 12 months, can be made from December and the amount will be credited to members’ bank accounts from January.
EPF is expected to announce full details of the program tomorrow.
