Dr Wee questions unusually high EPF dividend payout-to-earnings ratio compared to previous years

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).

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.

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.