KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has invested RM25.29bil in government-owned Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd, Parliament was told.
In a written reply to Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam), the Finance Ministry said the investment is guaranteed by the government under a lease agreement.
On EPF’s investment in 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the Ministry said it is limited to RM200mil and also government-guaranteed.
“The EPF did not invest in Felda Global Ventures Berhad so far,” it added in the written reply.
It was revealed in Parliament in April that PFI, which is owned by Finance Ministry Inc, has incurred debts of up to RM26.6bil in the seven years of its inception.
The Ministry also revealed that EPF invested a total of RM79.99bil in various government-linked companies as of March 31 this year.
“The investment is in the form of fixed-rate loans, bond or sukuk subscriptions, and the rest is based on government guarantee, collateral assets and bank guarantee,” it said.
In his query, Khalid had asked the Government to reveal EPF's total investments in government-linked companies such as PFI, 1MDB and FGV.
He also asked if such investments were the reason EPF could not provide healthy dividends to its contributors.
The Government explained that more than half of EPF’s investment were in fixed income instruments, including government securities and level coupon bonds for both domestic and global mandates.
Therefore, it said the EPF’s returns were naturally influenced by interest and inflation rates.
“In view of the increasing inflation rate since 2009, EPF continues to invest in various equity and inflation assets such as properties and infrastructure, in line with its strategic asset allocation,” it said.
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