EPF: Apply once, get monthly withdrawals

KUALA LUMPUR: From January, EPF contributors who want to make monthly withdrawals from Account 2 to help pay their housing loan instalments need only go once to apply for it.

The money would be credited to their personal accounts.

Finance Minister II Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the contributors only need to go to EPF to apply for the monthly withdrawal once and the money would be directly credited to their account every month.

He said the condition was that the contributors have a housing loan.

On worries that the monthly withdrawal would be subject to abuse like the EPF computer withdrawal scheme which was a flop, he said: "Let them use the money. It is all right. The money is in their pocket. But they must have a housing loan.

"There are no worries. For the computer scheme in the past, some contributors bought computer slips rather than computers. In this case, they cannot cheat. We can check with the bank if they have a housing loan."

Nor Yakcop was asked to elaborate on the EPF monthly withdrawals mentioned in Budget 2008.

The Budget was tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last Friday.

Nor Yakcop was speaking to reporters after delivering his keynote address at the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association's seminar entitled "Making Sense of The Media Collusion" here Tuesday.