KUALA LUMPUR: As of April 12, 2020, the government has received 1.28 million applications for withdrawals under the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) i-Lestari facility for May, of which 1.17 million were approved, involving withdrawals totalling RM572 million.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said under the programme, EPF contributors may withdraw RM500 per month for 12 months from their Account 2.
The withdrawals are expected to increase in the following months, he said in a video broadcast on Facebook here today.
The i-Lestari facility is part of the government’s measures to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and movement control order.
Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said nearly 3,000 applications were approved for Bank Negara Malaysia’s RM5 billion Special Relief Fund for affected businesses, involving a pay-out of RM1.46 billion, or 30 per cent of the fund’s total allocation.
He added that the government received 31,000 applications from employers of small companies with 75 workers or less for the wage subsidy programme, involving a pay-out of approximately RM307 million.
The government had allocated RM13.8 billion for the programme, which aimed to ease the financial burden of small and medium-sized enterprises.
As for the Employee Retention Programme, Tengku Zafrul said 6,900 employers had applied for the RM600 monthly subsidy per employee for 47,000 workers, involving a pay-out of RM28.6 million.
The figures revealed by Tengku Zafrul are based on a report on the Implementation of the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package prepared by the Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana). – Bernama
