PETALING JAYA: More than 99,000 Employee Provident Fund (EPF) contributors are appealing to Putrajaya to allow targeted withdrawals, saying they need the money to pay off outstanding debts.
RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star
Despite 2020 being a bad year in terms of the pandemic and economic downturn, on Feb 27, 2021, Malaysian retirement savings fund, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), declared a dividend of 5.2% for conventional savings and 4.9% for syariah savings for 2020, amounting to a total payout of RM47.64bil.
This could be the main reason why EPF had earlier announced its readiness to allow an unconditional withdrawal of funds by those who are most affected by the economic downturn brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reason the fund has been able to give out a respectable dividend is because its investments overseas and on fixed income instruments in 2020 produced good returns. With some 14 million contributors, the fund achieved a net investment income of RM37.83mil for the first nine months of 2020, with its fixed income portfolio recording an income of more than RM22bil in the same period.