The dividends for this year will only be a touch lower than last year.

The EPF is expected to announce encouraging dividend rates for 2020. It is understood that the board has approved a dividend of between 5% and 5.3% for conventional accounts and between 4.8% to 5% for shariah.

This is even higher than Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd’s 4.25%.

Sources said the official announcement is expected to be made any time soon, which will then be entered into their accounts immediately after that.

For 2019, it declared a 5.45% dividend for conventional savings and 5% for shariah accounts.

For 2018, the fund gave out 6.15% for conventional savings and 5.9% for shariah.

Still, the dividends for this year are expected to keep contributors smiling as there were expectations of a much lower payout due to the effects of the pandemic which had adversely hit the economy last year.

The dividends are also much higher than what banks were offering for fixed deposits which are between 1.8% to 2.2%, depending on the amount and period.

It has been the practice for EPF to announce its annual dividends after the first week of February each year. Although there are 14 million members, only about seven million are active accounts.

One source said that although the performance of Bursa Malaysia took a dip as a result of the impact of the various movement control orders due to Covid-19, the funds’ overall performance had made up for this.

“Investments abroad helped in this higher than expected dividends which brought in some good returns,” he said.

Last year, the total dividend payout amounted to RM45.82 billion, of which RM41.68 billion was for conventional accounts and RM4.14 billion for shariah.

EPF needs more than RM7.6 billion to pay out every 1% of the dividend. The fund has been consistently paying out at least 2% more than the mandated 2.5% under the EPF Act 1991 for several decades.