VERY rarely has incarcerated ex-premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak (presumed so) spoken something which is music to the ears of Malaysians at large.
He spoke the darnedest recently when he took a jibe at Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for telling the unity government to save the RM1 bil set aside under Budget 2023 to top up by RM500 the Account 1 of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members aged between 40 and 54 with less than RM10,000.
Debating on the Supply Bill 2023 in Dewan Rakyat yesterday (March 6), the former prime minister (PM) and current Bersatu president said the government should have used the RM1 bil allocated for additional retirement funds for flood relief work in Johor instead.
“Muhyiddin said the government should save this RM1 bil because nobody told the government to inject RM500 into the EPF account of deserving members,” chided Najib on his Facebook page.
“Is this so? Has Muhyiddin gotten the consent of each of the two million eligible EPF members that they are willing to forgo the RM500 ‘gift’?”
Delving further into the matter, the former Pekan MP explained that both the special targeted withdrawal request and the RM500 government contribution “are two separate matters and involve two different groups”.
“Those who requested for special withdrawals are those who have enough balance to be withdrawn on a targeted basis while those who can benefit from the RM500 are those who do not have enough balance for targeted withdrawals,” explained Najib.
“Why does the group that does not have enough balance need to be punished just because the request by the group which has enough balance (for targeted withdrawal) is not approved? You can continue to request the government for targeted withdrawals but don’t deny the rights of those who don’t request or are not eligible to request special withdrawals.”
For the record, Muhyiddin who is also the Pagoh MP had repeatedly made calls for the government to allow targeted EPF withdrawals to help cushion the blow of the increasing cost of living.
The government, however, had stood firm in not allowing another round as the total amount of retirement savings had significantly reduced after four withdrawals were allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between 2020 and 2022, EPF said RM145.5 bil had been withdrawn from members’ accounts through i-Lestari (RM20.8 bil), i-Sinar (RM58.7 bil), i-Citra (RM21.4 bil) and a special withdrawal (RM44.6 bil).
Moreover, EPF statistics further revealed that the median savings of the Bumiputera group had dropped by 70% to RM4,900 from RM15,500 while that for the Indian community had decreased by 40% to RM14,900 from RM25,700.
Meanwhile, the median savings of Chinese members dropped by 1% to RM45,200 from RM45,800. – March 7, 2023
Main pic credit: MYKMU.NET
