KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) saw an 11.56% increase in contributions in the third quarter ended Sept 30 to RM16.91 billion from RM15.16 billion in the same quarter last year, in tandem with the growth in memberships.
The total accumulated members’ contributions stood at RM785.59 billion as at end-Sept, representing an increment of 9.72% from RM715.97 billion in Q3 2017.
As at the end-Sept 2018, the number of EPF members totaled to about 14.09 million, of whom 7.2 million were active contributors, with 138,376 newly registered members.
The quarter under review also saw an increase of 10.74% in the number of newly registered employers to 17,791 from 16,065 in Q3 2017, bringing the total number of registered employers to 504,090.
During the quarter under review, the total number of approved applications for all withdrawals increased 6.93% to 616,835 from 576,836 in the same quarter last year.
The amount withdrawn however decreased slightly to RM11.52 million from the RM11.68 million recorded in the corresponding period last year.
The total number of approved applications for Age 55 Full Withdrawal in Q3 2018 dropped 53.60% to 16,726 (RM907.35 million) from 36,045 (RM2 billion) in the corresponding quarter in 2017.
Meanwhile, approved applications for Age 60 Full Withdrawal recorded an increase of 15% to 14,733 (RM217.77 million) in Q3 2018 from 12,811 (RM280.66 million) in Q3 2017.
The EPF also reported a marked increase in the number of applications for flexible withdrawal, compared to full withdrawal in the period under review, with approved applications for Age 55 Flexible Withdrawal increasing 57.76% to 70,955 from 44,976 in the corresponding period in 2017.
Total amount withdrawn under Age 55 Flexible Withdrawal was RM2.72 billion in Q3 2018, compared with RM1.80 billion in Q3 2017.
Approved applications for Age 60 Flexible Withdrawal, meanwhile, recorded a 45.7% increase to 43,289 (RM791.95 million) in Q3 2018 from 29,712 (RM662.05 million) in Q3 2017.
As for the usage of its electronic service, i-Akaun surged 83.45% to 11.09 million in Q3 2018, compared with 6.04 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
