EMPLOYEES Provident Fund (EPF) contributors can now apply for i-Lestari (Account 2) withdrawals via a newly launched online facility of the same name.

“We quickly realised after we launched i-Lestari in early April that the application process was quite complicated, and caused a lot of confusion,” said chief officer Alizakri Alias in a statement today.

“On top of that, many of our members had not set up their i-Akaun through which i-Lestari was being mainly processed, and this made the application process even more difficult.”

As of 6pm today, EPF received more than 1.4 million applications for i-Lestari withdrawals.

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, in a Facebook broadcast earlier today, said 1.17 million withdrawal applications were approved as of yesterday, involving a sum of RM572 million.

Under i-Lestari, EPF contributors can withdraw RM500 per month for 12 months.

Tengku Zafrul said withdrawals are expected to increase in the following months given the Covid-19 pandemic and movement-control order to halt the disease’s spread.

He added that nearly 3,000 applications were approved for Bank Negara Malaysia’s RM5 billion Special Relief Fund for businesses impacted by the crisis, involving a payout of RM1.46 billion, or 30% of the fund’s total allocation.

As for the Employee Retention Programme, he said 6,900 employers have applied for a RM600 monthly subsidy for 47,000 workers, involving a total of RM28.6 million. – Bernama, April 14, 2020.