EPF switch won’t pay dividends so soon

Prof Geoffrey Williams is an economist at Malaysia University of Science and Technology. He says a wholesale reform of pensions can help to solve the problem for the long-term with immediate short-term benefits.

THE government is not abolishing the civil service pension scheme. It is merely proposing that new employees be absorbed into the EPF scheme. Existing civil servants and civil service pensions will not be affected.

Moving to EPF will not help the government in the short-term. First, the current pensioners will still be on the old scheme, so costs will not fall.