“It is very unfortunate that the country has a finance minister who does not care about the rakyat,” Puad told FMT.
“He claimed that those who continue to fight for a one-off withdrawal of RM10,000 through the i-Citra scheme were instigating the rakyat and that the government was already dealing with the floods, including by giving RM1,000 to each affected family.
“But the rakyat’s problem is not just due to the floods. They have endured hardships ever since the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government implemented the half-baked movement control orders.”
The government previously allowed EPF contributors to dip into their savings as an emergency measure against hardship caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In recent days, several quarters have called for another one-off withdrawal to help flood victims ease their additional suffering.
But Tengku Zafrul has closed the door on any further withdrawal, saying populist calls by “provocateurs” would only lead to burdening the next generation who would have to care for the elderly with no retirement savings.
Puad spoke of the damage to homes and properties caused by the recent floods which swept many parts of the country, and also of the many Malaysians who have yet to get back on their feet after being left with depleted incomes by the pandemic.
He said: “Is Tengku Zafrul confident that those who have lost their jobs will be able to return to work? Have their businesses fully recovered?
“This is not a matter of wanting to be populist. This is about the lives of the rakyat who have fallen on hard times. After losing their jobs due to Covid-19, they are now losing their properties because of the floods.”
He told Tengku Zafrul to start thinking of ways the government could help EPF members increase their contributions instead of repeatedly saying the one-off withdrawal would affect them after retirement.
A total of RM101 billion has been withdrawn by seven million EPF members under three withdrawal schemes so far.
EPF last month warned its members that using pension savings for emergency needs would lead to their having “very low” savings in their retirement years and said the problem could be compounded by other uncertainties such as healthcare costs.
It said the withdrawals had left 6.1 million members – nearly half the fund’s contributors – with less than RM10,000 in their accounts.
Of that number, 3.6 million members have less than RM1,000, a far cry from the RM240,000 the EPF has set as the minimum amount members should have when they reach the age of 55 in order to have a “decent retirement”.