SHAH ALAM - Withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will not only help the rakyat but also able to spur the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).
Umno Youth chief, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said, based on the Social Wellbeing Research Centre (SWRC) of University Malaya, EPF withdrawals are being used to pay for expenses, debts as well purchasing electronic gadgets out of necessity for their children's Home Teaching and Learning (PdP) programme.
"Records show that the government are only able to provide the gadgets for 150,000 students for PdPR but the remaining 4.8 million students, the parents used up their EPF savings money to buy gadgets for that purpose,” he said on the Berani Semuka programme dubbed ‘KWSP: Lega sekarang, susah kemudian?’ broadcast live on every Sinar Harian digital platform on Wednesday (Jan13).
Pasir Gudang MP, Hassan Abdul Karim was also a panellist in the programme.
Asyraf Wajdi said it is evident that if the money is in the hands of the rakyat, it will be spent to help with the growth of the GDP.
"A survey from Malaysia Institute Economic Research (MIER) predicted that one per cent of the GDP growth will provide 70,000 job opportunities so those who lost their jobs during the Movement Control Order (MCO) are able to work again,” he said.
Asyraf pointed out that since the pandemic started, over 140,608 people have lost their jobs, 500,000 of M40 households have transitioned to become B40 householders meanwhile, 10,680 people went through bankruptcy and 100,000 businesses are closed from March 2020 to July 2021.