PETALING JAYA: The government has agreed to a special Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawal of RM10,000 for members aged 55 and below, with the payouts to start from April 20.

       However, there will be some conditions.

       Members can withdraw a maximum amount of RM10,000 and minimum of RM50 but must first utilise all their savings balance in Account 2 before being able to touch any funds in Account 1, it said.

       Members can apply for the withdrawals from April 1 to April 30.

       Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who announced the approval for the withdrawal, told contributors that they should ensure they still have some savings left for rainy days.

       In announcing the decision, he said the government had heard, researched and looked into the requests of those who wanted to withdraw their EPF savings.

       “This is a tough decision because it involves the retirement savings. This special withdrawal is a middle path to balance out the pressing needs of today and future savings,” he told a special press conference yesterday.

       He appealed to EPF contributors to ensure they kept some savings in their account for rainy days, although the government has given the nod for withdrawal.

       He said that although the country was in a recovery phase, there are still people who have been affected economically, lost their income and are trying to rebuild their lives.

       Ismail Sabri said a total of RM101bil has been withdrawn by 7.34 million EPF contributors through the i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra schemes since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Malaysia two years ago.

       Meanwhile, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said EPF would announce measures needed to overcome the issue of depleting savings of EPF contributors.

       He said withdrawals of up to RM10,000 for about 6.3 million eligible members will come up to RM63bil.

       A few days ago, Tengku Zafrul had said the EPF could have announced a 6.7% dividend instead of the 6.1% for 2021 if not for the spate of withdrawals under the i-Lestari, i-Citra and i-Sinar schemes.

       As of the end of last year, total withdrawals from the three facilities amounted to RM101bil.

       In December 2021, EPF announced that 6.1 million members had less than RM10,000 in their savings. Of that number, 3.6 million had less than RM1,000.

       Several political leaders such as former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno Youth chief Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki and Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim have supported calls for the withdrawal to be allowed.

       The EPF website and i-Akaun mobile application appeared to be inaccessible after Ismail Sabri’s announcement.

       A check by LifestyleTech showed that the website and mobile app was taking a longer time to load, likely due to high traffic.