EPF did not lose RM6 billion, says Guan Eng
THE Finance Ministry has denied allegations that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) lost RM6.09 billion in a month.
Its minister, Lim Guan Eng, said in referring to the value of stocks, it was incorrect to assume such a loss, based on the fluctuation of FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index.
He said the rise and fall of Bursa Malaysia index was influenced by factors such as the pace of economic development, good financial governance and political stability in and outside Malaysia.
He said as of Monday, the country’s performance was the best in Asia Pacific, although not much had changed since the end of last year.
He said if compared with the book value, EPF still recorded overall profits.
However, he said, when shares were not sold, profits were unrecorded, hence, unrealised gains.
He said this when answering a question by Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba (BN-Tenggara) on the government’s plans to overcome losses suffered by EPF.
Lim said EPF’s investment performance would improve based on investors’ confidence in the government’s economic management.
“The government’s efforts to stamp out corruption, wastage in the public sector, increase efficiency and effectiveness, as well as (enhance the) competitiveness of the private sector, will restore investors’ confidence.”
In his response to Adham’s additional question on whether the government would diversify EPF’s investment portfolio to low-risk investment to maintain EPF unit holders’ confidence and prevent Malaysia from taking a loan from Japan, Lim said EPF unit holders would get back their investments on retirement or when needed.
“EPF plays its role well and its performance is not controversial. Good investments done previously will be continued.”
He said the government’s official currency debt was at RM21.3 billion and from that amount, RM15.7 billion was in the United States dollar, while RM5.3 billion was in Japanese yen.
“It (RM21.3 billion) covered only 3.1 per cent of the government’s official debt,” he said, adding that RM5.3 billion did not reach one per cent of the said debt.