PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong has questioned the payout-to-earnings ratio of the Employees' Provident Fund's (EPF) dividend of 6.3% for 2024, with the total payout for conventional and syariah savings amounting to RM73.24bil.
"The EPF dividend payout for 2024 accounts for 98.4% of the total earnings from EPF's investment profits throughout 2024, compared to 2023, where the payout amounted to only 86.3% of EPF's investment profits.
"The higher EPF dividend rate in 2024 is not due to exceptionally good performance but comes from the manipulation of the payout ratio to 98.4%, as opposed to the usual rate of 85% to 90%," said the MCA president in a TikTok video on Wednesday (March 5).
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The video came after Dr Wee called for an independent probe into EPF's investment decision regarding its shares in Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).
Dr Wee noted that a high dividend rate did not necessarily indicate that EPF avoided losses from its sale of MAHB shares, nor did it rule out the possibility of any wrongdoing in the transaction.
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In his video, Dr Wee continued to call for an explanation for why EPF sold its MAHB shares at a low price, before buying them back at a higher price of RM11 per share.
The Ayer Hitam MP also asked who the decision-makers were and asked for a clarification of the “Chinese wall” and “above the wall” concepts in relation to the transactions.
