KUALA LUMPUR: An MP has suggested that the government absorb the workers’ contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) so they can have more money to spend on their families.
Klang MP Charles Santiago said workers needing extra cash were being “forced” to withdraw their savings from their second EPF account under the i-Lestari scheme for the B40.
“This is meant for them to spend when they retire, but here you are forcing people to withdraw money,” he told reporters at Parliament today.
The employee’s contribution varies between 12% and 13% of the monthly salary.
The i-Lestari programme allows EPF members aged 55 and below to withdraw between RM50 and RM500 a month for 12 months until March 31, 2021.
“The plan to support the most vulnerable population is poorly conceived as the bottom 10% of EPF contributors have only about RM320 in their Account 2. Thus, the poor will not be able to take advantage of the i-Lestari scheme,” he said.
Santiago also urged the government to enhance the wage subsidy programme to reimburse 80% of workers’ salaries for companies that suffered a 30% drop in revenue.
He also proposed that Putrajaya create a mobile app to identify and register informal workers.
“The social protection system currently excludes informal workers,” he said, adding that they were 5.9 million Malaysians working in the sector.
On the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional one-off payments of RM1,000 and RM600 for households earning less than RM4,000 a month, Santiago said this was not enough, especially for those living in urban areas.
According to EPF’s estimates, he said, workers in some parts of Kuala Lumpur would need about RM6,000 to survive.
“The problems arising from Covid-19 are going to be with us for a long time. Therefore, we need something more sustainable,” he said.
Source : FMT
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