KUALA LUMPUR, July 2- The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has no links with Israel or the manufacturing of weapons of war, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan (photo) said the EPF also did not invest in gambling and liquor, in line with its investment policy and ethical mandate.
“In principle, the EPF does not separate investment based on the religion and race of members. The annual distribution of dividend is based on cumulative income from Islamic and conventional investment instruments.
“However, we have proper guidelines and investment policies to fulfill the ethical mandate in which the EPF will not make invest in sectors which are clearly haram and wrong, such as gambling, liquor, manufacturing and sale of weaspons of war and has no links with Israel.”
He was replying to a question from Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Zahari (BN-Setiawangsa) on the types of investments managed by the EPF.
EPF total investments for Q1 2013 was RM536.7 billion of which about 60 percent was in fixed income instruments in line with the risk and return profile.
On EPF Islamic investments, Ahmad said up to March, 38 percent of EPF total investment was based on syariah.
It was always expanding investment in syariah compliant instruments in line with the growth of investment assets based on regulations under the EPF Act 1991.
Answering a supplementary question from Nasrudin Hassan (PAS-Temerloh) on EPF investments abroad, Ahmad said the maximum value of overseas investments should not exceed 23 percent.
“So far, EPF total overseas investments are at 18 percent. This means that the other 82 percent are investments in the country,” he added.
-BERNAMA
