{"id":538278,"date":"2026-03-13T18:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538278\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:19:07","slug":"over-2000-company-directors-banned-from-leaving-malaysia-over-unpaid-epf-contributions-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538278\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 2,000 company directors banned from leaving Malaysia over unpaid EPF contributions last year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 \u2014 A total of 2,257 company directors have been barred from leaving the country for failing to pay Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions for their employees between January and December last year.<\/p>\n<p>Its chief operation officer Sazaliza Zainuddin said the names of the employers were submitted to the Immigration Department under Section 39 of the Employees Provident Fund Act 1991, bringing the total number of company directors barred from travelling abroad for the same reason to 14,332 as of December last year.<\/p>\n<p>He added that last year, EPF also filed 3,530 civil suits and took 6,011 criminal actions against company directors and employers who failed to remit employees\u2019 contributions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll employers are required to make employee contributions under Section 43(1) of the EPF Act. Employers who fail to fulfil their obligations to pay EPF contributions may face enforcement action, including civil proceedings, criminal prosecution and travel restrictions abroad,\u201d he said in a statement today.<\/p>\n<p>Sazaliza said KWSP\u2019s enforcement teams continuously monitor employers to ensure contributions are paid accurately and on time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaking contributions on time and consistently is vital not only for safeguarding workers\u2019 rights but also for allowing their retirement savings to grow, establishing a strong basis for long-term financial well-being,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>From January to December 2025, EPF resolved 8,868 cases of contribution arrears from a total of 21,029 complaints lodged by employees, while 12,161 cases are still under investigation or pending legal action.<\/p>\n<p>Sazaliza stressed that employers who fail to meet their obligations may face strict enforcement, emphasising that safeguarding members\u2019 retirement savings remains the fund\u2019s top priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers are urged to regularly check their EPF accounts via the KWSP i-Akaun app to ensure their employers\u2019 contributions are credited on time. Employers are also encouraged to use i-Akaun (Employer) to verify their employees\u2019 details, contributions paid and payment history.\u201d \u2014 Bernama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 \u2014 A total of 2,257 company directors have been barred from leaving the country&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,266889,99,80237,266886,186,2819,266888,184,185,266887],"class_list":["post-538278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bernama","tag-business","tag-employees-provident-fund","tag-epf-act-1991","tag-finance","tag-kuala-lumpur","tag-kwsp-i-akaun","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-sazaliza-zainuddin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}