EPF Dividend For 2009 Expected To Be Higher

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) dividend for 2009 is expected to be higher compared to the 4.5 per cent paid out in the previous year.

EPF chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said this was due to the local share market's stable position and good investment returns.

"A meeting on dividend rates will be held this month, while an announcement on it will be made in March," he told reporters, here Sunday.

Samsudin, who is also Putrajaya Corporation president, had earlier presented prizes to winners of a fishing competition held in conjunction with Federal Territory Day celebrations.

In December, EPF announced that it obtained RM5.5 billion in profits in the third quarter last year, which was an increase of RM696.32 million (14.51 per cent) compared to RM4.8 billion in the previous quarter.

EPF chief executive officer Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said EPF funds had now increased to RM361.09 billion compared with RM353.93 billion in the second quarter last year.

For the year 2008, 12 million EPF members received a dividend of 4.5 per cent, which was lower than the 5.8 per cent for 2007.