RM3 billion spike a year
Longer life span and annual increment of pension send government pension bill soaring
KUCHING: The pension payout in Malaysia is increasing by a whopping RM3 billion each year.
In revealing this, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu said the federal government would have to pay an additional RM3 billion to pensioners each year.
“For example, if this year’s total payout is RM5 billion,it will be RM8 billion next year, and the following year RM11 billion,” he told a press conference after the launch of MalaysiaBiz Portal here yesterday.
However, the minister could not give the actual fi gure for the amount pensioners received this year offhand.
According to previous reports on Feb 1, 2017, Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani reportedly said the salary of public servants totalled RM22 billion in 2003.
This increased to RM74 billion by 2016 while the pension for civil servants, which was RM5.9 billion in 2003 soared to RM19 billion in 2016.
Entulu said several factors contributed to the increase in pension payout, one of them being the fact that Malaysians enjoy a longer lifespan today.
“Another one is the two per cent annual increment for all pensioners,” he said.
When asked if the government is recruiting new civil servants, Entulu said the public should not be confused with the roles of Civil Service Commission (SPA) and Public Service Department (JPA).
Entulu, who is minister in charge of SPA, said: “SPA does not create vacancies. It only recruits based on what JPA wants.
“The people who really create the vacancies are the JPA. We ( SPA) identify who should be taking what post.
“The basic government policy now is if it is not a critical post, SPA does not recruit,” he said, adding the government also does not retrench people.
“What we do is, those who retire, we wil l look whether
For example, if this year’s total payout is RM5 billion,it will be RM8 billion next year, and the following year RM11 billion. Datuk Joseph Entulu, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department
there is a need to replace them or not. If there is no need, we don’t replace,”he said.
Entulu said the government is now caught between the devil and deep blue sea.
He said if the government does not recruit, the opposition would say the government is not helping in decreasing unemployment.
“If we recruit they say the ratio of civil servants to the population is very low - something like 1:19.
“If you are the government what would you do? Between 200,000 and 300,000 people graduate from universities, colleges, polytechnics and the likes in Malaysia each year.
“Some people think running a government is easy. One of the biggest challenges is to plan for employment,” he said.
Entulu said employment was not a problem in Malaysia in terms of numbers.
“It is how to get high income employment because the people of today are very demanding,” he added.