BARISAN Nasional (BN) continues to urge the Federal government to accept the proposal of Pekan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak for the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to approve a one-off withdrawal from Account 1 instead of in stages.

Its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said, the withdrawal of one-off RM10,000 from Account 1 needs to be reconsidered before the 2021 Budget is approved because it is really needed by the people.

He said not only that, the Ministry of Finance needs to make some adjustments to ensure that the monthly payment of RM500 as announced earlier is converted to withdrawal at once.

UMNO and BN MPs agreed to support the request of the Chairman of the BN Government Supporters Club (BNBBC), Datuk Seri Najib on the withdrawal of RM10,000 from one EPF contributors’ account.

“The proposal should be accepted as the best recommendation because the average contributors are those with low incomes.

“If the payment is only RM500 a month, this does not meet their goal to pay the burden borne by them,” he told reporters after holding a Ziarah Kasih Program around the Bagan Datuk Parliament.

Also present at the program were Hutan Melintang State Assemblyman Datuk Khairuddin Tarmizi and Rungkup ADUN Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya.

Zahid said giving the money does not involve government expenses because the money is the contributor’s savings.

On November 10, Najib, while debating the Supply (Budget) Bill 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat, submitted a proposal to approve the call for the implementation of a moratorium in bulk and a one-off withdrawal of RM10,000 from Account 1 of the EPF.

The former Prime Minister also stressed that BN is ready to support the 2021 Budget tabled amounting to RM322.5 billion conditionally as long as the two proposals are met.