Partial commencement of Malaysia’s amended Employees Provident Fund Act from 1 October 2020

29 October 2020

On 1 October 2020, sections 6, 8 and 11 of the Malaysia Employees Provident Fund (Amendment) Act 2019 (“EPF Amendment Act”) came into operation. This development follows the other sections of the EPF Amendment Act which came into operation on 15 March 2020. The EPF Amendment Act seeks to amend the Employees Provident Fund Act 1991 (“Act”) which provides for the law relating to a compulsory savings scheme for employees in the private sector called the Employees Provident Fund (“EPF”), the management of savings for retirement purposes and other related matters.

The chief executive officer of the EPF (“CEO”) may now request that a person who the CEO has reason to believe is about to or is likely to leave Malaysia without paying any outstanding and due contributions under the Act be prevented from leaving Malaysia. A member of the EPF may now elect to transfer his contributions into the account of another member of the EPF who is or are his lawful wife or wives subject to fulfilment of certain stipulated conditions.