Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) logo is seen at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur September 5, 2019. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — A new withdrawal service that allows Malaysians to withdraw money from their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) accounts called i-Citra was announced today by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Through i-Citra, 12.6 million EPF members will be allowed to withdraw RM5,000 with a fixed return rate of RM1,000 for five months, depending on the amount of money in their EPF savings.
“The implementation of i-Citra is expected to channel RM30 billion to the people for their daily needs.
“Members can start applying to withdraw their EPF money through the i-Citra portal at icitra.kwsp.gov.my from July 15, 2021 with the first payment expected to be credited into your account in August 2021,” he said in a live telecast this evening.
“The fact is this is a tough decision for the government as these are your retirement savings hence i-Citra solution is trying to find the middle ground between those who really need the money and those who don’t.”
Besides that, Muhyiddin said 250,000 people have been granted loan moratoriums from their banks under the Pemerkasa Plus package. These individuals need only to pick either three months or reduce their annual repayments by 50 per cent per month for six months.
He added that the loan moratorium will now be automatic and cover all income groups and micro entrepreneurs for the next six months.
“A six-month moratorium will be given to all in the B40, M40 and T20 as well as micro entrepreneurs.
“There are no more conditions like how much wage reduction you took, no more checks on whether you have really lost your job and you no longer need to provide documentation to prove this,” said Muhyiddin.
“All you need is to apply for this and it will be given automatically.”
Applications open on July 7.