THE government should reconsider its plans to make it mandatory for migrant workers to contribute to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as Malaysian workers should be prioritised, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam).
Dr Wee expressed concerns over the welfare of Malaysian EPF contributors if it is made compulsory for foreigners to contribute to the retirement fund.
“The same was practised by Singapore, where dividends are high and its citizens are prioritised. That is why it closed its accounts,” said Dr Wee during debate on the Budget 2025 bill yesterday.
In March this year, Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) closed about 300,000 accounts set up before 2003, belonging to foreigners who are not permanent residents.
According to Dr Wee, he was one of those whose CPF accounts were closed, as he had worked in Singapore in the past.
Not making it mandatory to contribute to a pension scheme does not violate any international laws and Singapore had already started doing so in the ‘90s for its migrant workers, said Dr Wee.
“I hope the government looks into the matter because this will burden all of us,” said Dr Wee.
When tabling Budget 2025 last month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Putrajaya plans to make it compulsory for all foreign workers in Malaysia to contribute to the EPF.
On a related matter, Dr Wee said plans to expand the scope of the sales and service tax (SST) to cover business-to-business (B2B) services could create a ripple effect leading to price increases.
“At the moment, B2B services are not being taxed and my concern is the potential price increase,” he said.
He urged the Finance Ministry to reveal more details about its plans to expand the scope of SST, so that Malaysians are not caught off-guard.
“I hope the Finance Ministry can list out what will be taxed.”
On Nov 12, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said the government is expected to raise an additional RM5bil with the expansion of the SST scope.
He said government revenue is expected to reach RM51.7bil, up from the present forecast of RM46.7bil next year.
