PETALING JAYA: The government’s move to increase the voluntary contribution limit to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to RM100,000 per year from RM60,000 will only benefit the higher-income group, economists said.
They added the latest move could be an effort by EPF to recoup the billions that were withdrawn from the retirement fund in the last two years, and it has left out a large segment of society who do not earn much, The Malaysian Insight reports.
Sunway University economist Yeah Kim Leng said the move benefits only the rich.
“They (EPF) are targeting the super rich, some people only make RM60,000 a year.
“They are capturing money that ideally should be managed by private-sector funds,” he said.
“Contributors (who can afford it) can assess if the projected earnings and dividends are higher (with EPF) than unit trusts or other private funds and use their excess income to ‘invest’ in EPF if they want to,“ Yeah told The Malaysian Insight.
Meanwhile, Lim Kim Hwa, Penang Institute director and fellow in finance at University of Cambridge, said the move will not help those who have depleted their retirement savings.
“While the initiative to increase the ceiling is laudable as it provides an incentive to save for retirement, the segment of the society most severely underfunding their pensions are unlikely to be the segment that earns more than RM100,000,” Lim said.
