FORMER Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan wants Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to swiftly enhance the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) Account 2 Support Facility (FSA2) mechanism or step down as the Finance Minister.
This comes about after the Tasek Gelugor MP met a group of EPF depositors who received approval for their i-Cagar FSA2 from MBSB Bank with their loans having been deposited into their respective bank accounts. Interestingly, however, all of them received approvals although they have bankrupt status.
“The approval was initially a relief to them. But their happiness was short-lived because until today, they’re unable to withdraw all the approved money,” claimed Wan Saiful in a Facebook post.
Delving further, Wan Saiful said some of the approved borrowers have received an SMS from the MBSB Bank instructing them to obtain a release letter from the Insolvency Department or risking their loans cancelled even if the funds have been deposited into their bank accounts.
“How can there be a situation where a loan has been approved, funds have been deposited in a personal account, but the borrower is not allowed to spend the money?” chastised Wan Saiful.
“If these people were not eligible because of bankruptcy, why were their applications approved in the first place? In fact, not only approved but even the money has been deposited into the personal accounts!”
“What’s worse, one of the contributors shared with me a screenshot of his account. The lender borrowed RM18,000 from MBSB by using his existing EPF savings as collateral. MBSM charges interest at 4.5% for the nine-year loan period. At the end of the day, the full amount he has to pay is RM35,601.12 which is twice the amount of RM18,000 that he borrowed!!
At this juncture, the former chairman of the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) urged Anwar as the Finance Minister and PM to explain why his administration is so reckless and chaotic that the poor is persecuted in such manner.
“There has never been a PM on this earth who ever suggested that the solution for those who are bankrupt because of debt is to add more debt. This is the perverted thinking of an incompetent PM,” he lambasted.
In particular, Wan Saiful wanted Anwar to:
- Explain how bankrupts can receive loan application approval?;
- Ensure that if their loans are cancelled, no interest will be imposed on them for the money that has already been deposited into their personal account and for their EPF status to be back to normal;
- Ensure that borrowers who have withdrawn their loans are not forced to pay them back unfairly;
- Explain the government’s rationale for forcing depositors to increase their debt level until their repayments are doubled and they are unnecessarily burdened.
“Actually, a simple solution is for Anwar to admit that he made a mistake with the FSA2 i-Cagar. Simply revert to the targeted EPF withdrawal scheme that I had previously suggested. It’s a better solution and doesn’t add more debt to EPF members.” – May 8, 2023
