Eric See-To
A usual topic of the opposition is to scare the people that the govt has to raid the KWSP/EPF for money to pay for its debts or force it to loan money to the Government.
The truth is that when EPF was created, it was already mandated by law that at least 70% of EPF’s assets must be in the form of government bonds ie. lending money to the govt.
This is clearly stated in Section 26B of the EPF Act (refer pic below):
http://www.kwsp.gov.my/…/kwsp/abou…/epf-act/epf-act-reports…
In fact, EPF has not been meeting this minimum 70% requirement and needs to periodically get approval from the govt to allow this exemption.
As at the latest EPF results for quarter 1 ended March 2017, only 49.08% of EPF’s total assets are in fixed income instruments – which is a combination of govt bonds as well as corporate bonds. http://bit.ly/2vobXHX
Equities or investment in shares made up 41.76% while Money Market Instruments and Real Estates & Infrastructure each represented 5.04% and 4.11% of EPF’s total investment assets,
As at March 2017, there were 900 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia which are in total, worth RM1.801 Trillion.
On the same date, EPF’s total investment assets was RM747.17 billion.
Therefore, if EPF puts all their money into buying shares in Bursa Malaysia instead of buying govt bonds or loaning to the govt, it would end up owning 41.5% of each and every company listed on Bursa – clearly a non-viable and non-sustainable option.
Lending money in Ringgit to the govt, which controls the Ringgit, is the safest and lowest risk investment you can get – even lower risk than keeping the money in banks, which can get into trouble as it did in 1998.
Therefore, please do not fall for the propaganda that says that the govt is forcing EPF to buy govt bonds.
The opposition is just trying to lie to you. Your money is safe in EPF.
In fact, no one has ever had any problems taking money out of the EPF if they fulfill the required requirements.
In fact, even if you try to deposit more each month into EPF than you are allowed to by law, EPF will refuse your money.
Try this: Go to any EPF branches and tell them that you want to deposit money directly into EPF. See what EPF will tell you.
