EPF helps employers make contributions for workers

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) always implements numerous measures to ensure that employers in the country discharge their responsibility of making contributions for their workers.

EPF Enforcement Department chief Hardial Singh said one of these initiatives, which had been implemented successfully, was having a proactive enforcement team and an effective monitoring system.

"The team is committed and professional. Other than advocacy, the officers in the team, who are known as inspectors, are also prepared to give advisory service and reach out to the employers who may have problems in understanding and implementing their responsibility," he said in an interview with Bernama at the EPF headquarters here.

He said that if the enforcement team found that an employer had failed to make contributions for a certain month, an officer would inform the employer via telephone or issue a reminder, which is followed up with an inspection visit to the premises.

The final resort is legal action which would be taken against an employer who is found to have failed to make contributions for his workers. Stiff legal action could be taken if the employer did not heed the reminder, he said.

Hardial Singh said it was the legal duty of employers to contribute and settle any outstanding contributions as provided for under the EPF Act 1991.

"Contributions for workers is also a form of employer appreciation for their workers and, at the same time, it is hoped that it will motivate the workers as they will have savings in their old age," he said.

He said employers could be jailed and/or fined while civil action could be taken against the owner and directors of a company and they could be barred from going abroad if they failed to settle outstanding workers' contributions under the provisions of the EPF Act 1991.

To date, he said, legal action had been taken against more than 10,000 company directors while 7,810 employers or 1.05 per cent of the 568,000 registered employers nationwide were found to have yet to carry out their responsibility.

"Due to the efforts and commitment of the EPF enforcement team, RM2.99 billion in outstanding contributions was collected in 2016, of which RM29 million was derived through the ban on travel abroad under Section 39(1)(a)," he said.

Hardial Singh said EPF was sensitive to the needs of employers and had implemented initiatives to facilitate employers in fulfilling their responsibility of making contributions for their workers.

These included introducing the e-Caruman and e-Caruman App facilities which enabled employers to send the A Form and make contributions and review information online via the EPF web page or via their smart mobile phones.

e-Caruman is accessible via the EPF web page, www.kwsp.gov.my, while the e-Caruman App facility via smart mobile phones for employers with 10 workers and below is also accessible via www.kwsp.gov.my.

- BERNAMA