KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): The government reaffirmed that it will not allow withdrawals from the primary Account 1 of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the haj pilgrimage, and ruled out any change to the policy.
EPF members that seek funds for haj expenses currently can only make withdrawals from Account 2 (Account Sejahtera), Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying answered during ministerial question time in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday. The withdrawal is subject to a cap of RM3,000.
“The government does not permit any withdrawals from Account 1 to ensure that members maintain a minimum basic savings of RM240,000 to secure their financial well-being during retirement,” Lim said.
Lim was responding to a query from Dr Abdul Ghani Ahmad (Perikatan Nasional-Jerlun) about the possibility of allowing select EPF members to access their savings for haj before reaching retirement age.
Under the current arrangement, haj withdrawals from the EPF’s Account 2 are permitted only for members below 55 years old who have been selected for haj by Lembaga Tabung Haji, have never applied for a haj withdrawal before, and have insufficient savings in their Tabung Haji account.
A total of 6,070 applications have been approved since the introduction of haj-related withdrawals from Account 2 in 2013 involving a total of RM16.7 million. The withdrawals averaged RM2,759 per application, Lim noted.
On other matters related to the EPF, Lim also listed several measures and initiatives by the EPF to support its members in building sufficient retirement savings, including voluntary contributions and i-Sayang, among others.
Some 872,000 members made additional self-contributions totalling RM9.39 billion as of August. Voluntary contribution is capped at RM100,000 per year.
There were also 263,000 EPF members who opted to raise their mandatory contribution rate of 11%.
The i-Sayang programme, which allows husbands to allocate 2% of their monthly EPF contributions to their wives' EPF accounts voluntarily, recorded 86,000 participating husbands transferring a cumulative RM22.1 million.
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