MFA 2023 PRINCIPLES OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

SEMESTER 2 SESSION 2022/2023

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

LECTURER NAME:NORASIKIN BINTI SALIKIN

STUDENT NAME:HAWA BINTI ZOLKEFLI

ID STUDENT:1220609

TITLE: INVESTMENT IN AMANAH SAHAM BUMIPUTERA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Pages

1 Introduction 3

2 Summary of articles 4

3 Critical review 5

4 Conclusion 6

5 References 6

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INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to knowing about issue that happens in financial
management of company in Malaysia. This report also give students opportunity to be aware
on current issue of financial management in recent years. In these report, I will focused about
Skim ASB. What is ASB stand for? ASB was launched by Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad
or ASNB for all Malaysian Bumiputera, and was set up on 22 May 1979 with an objective to
provide an alternative savings vehicle to a bulk of population and these funds act as
investment instruments help Malaysians to plan for their future. ASNB had been in the
investment industry for more than 30 years. This unit trust fund aims long term investment
that generates consistent and competitive returns with minimal risk. The issue in Amanah
Saham Bumiputera was come from the maximum individual limit for ASB has been raised to
RM 300,000 starting 2023 would further inculcate the saving culture and investment habit
among Malaysians and amid a rising interest rate environment. In that case, in this report I
will elaborate more about the issue of ASB itself.

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SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE.

This is a summary of the article review about issue that have been happen in Amanah
Saham Bumiputera. The issue is about investment in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB), its
started when maximum individual limit for ASB has been raised to RM 300,000 starting
2023 would further inculcate the saving culture and investment habit among Malaysians and
amid a rising interest rate environment.

In short, the government has increased the ceiling for investment into the Amanah
Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and ASB2 to RM300,000, from RM200,000 currently, said the
Minister of Finance Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz. This as the government also announced
that Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) will provide easy loans of 1.5% interest rate for the B40
groups to invest in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) totalling RM100 million, he said
during Budget 2023 themed ‘Keluarga Malaysia, Makmur Bersama’ tabling by in the Dewan
Rakyat on Friday 7 October 2022. In the Budget 2023 tabling in Parliament today, Dato’ Seri
Anwar Ibrahim ,who is also the finance minister, said the government has also agreed to
expand the fund size of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) by RM5 billion.

The flagship fund of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) paid out 4.25 Sen per unit,
with an additional 0.75 Sen per unit bonus for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021. This
amounted to RM8.9 billion in pay-out for the year. The total 2021 returns of 5 Sen for ASB
the funds's second lowest in more than a decade, having been on the decline in recent years in
the face of challenging investment environment. Its distribution was lowest in 2020, totalling
4.25 Sen comprising 3.5 Sen distribution and 0.75 Sen bonus. At end-2021, ASB units in
circulation stood at 181.2 billion, up 4.3% or 7.4 billion from a year ago. Total unit holders
amounted to 10.4 million, up 200,000 from a year ago.

Meanwhile, Malaysia University of Science and Technology economics professor Dr

Geoffrey Williams opined that generally anything that encourages people to save and invest
is positive, provided that there are tax incentives attached. Hence, increasing the limit only
helps if you get generous tax offsets. Otherwise, this change will only affect wealthy people
and will not have so much of an effect on lower-income Bumiputera. Other than that, citing

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information from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), he said the Bumiputera community
was the worst affected by withdrawals and have the lowest savings. So, it might be better to
save and rebuild your account in the EPF where the dividend is higher. In that sense, you
have government-linked investment companies competing for Bumiputera funds which does
not make much sense if the aim is to promote financial security especially for the long term
and for pension.

CRITICAL REVIEW

The recent issue of the raising of investment limits in Amanah Saham Bumiputera has
been vigorously debated among citizens especially the investor itself. Before this, ASB has a
maximum input limit of up to RM200,000 and investors can only increase their investment
amounts until this limit. However, the fund has no upper limit on the value of the account.
Hence, capital gains that are retained in the ASB account may exceed RM200,000. Investors
are free to decide the amount to invest at any time and can top-up or subscribe to additional
units via the relevant ASB agents. The ASB dividend is distributed on an annual basis but is
computed monthly based on the minimum amount of the month.

But now, it has change when maximum individual limit for ASB has been raised to
RM300,000 starting 2023. This kind of act give many impact and benefits to all the Malaysia
citizen. The moved is purpose to increase equity ownership among the Bumiputera
community in the country. After that, its also give the opportunity to further inculcate the
saving culture and investment habit among Malaysians, in line with our mandate to increase
the economic wealth of Bumiputera community and all Malaysian , for the prosperity of the
nation.

In these case, We can expect returns on risk-free assets to rise along with the
overnight policy rate (OPR). In my point of view, it will encourage households to save either
via a higher disposal income or ASB financing. Now, ASB has an input limit up to
RM300,000 meaning investors can only increase their investment amount until the input
limit. However, the fund has no upper limit on the value of the account. Hence, capital gains
that are retained in the ASB account is allowed to cause the total amount in the account to

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exceed RM300,000. Investors are free to decide the amount to invest at any time, and can
top-up or subscribe to additional units via the relevant ASB agents.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, investment is important to achieve individual goal. Investment means we have

money, then we need to make analysis to invest the money, and expected get return in
future. If the investment are run early, then we will make a lot of profit if the
investment run well, if not we will lose all of the investment need to start from earlier.
Apart from that, first thing first we must set an investment plan to make the
investment run well. From that, we can know what we will face in future, what the
risk need counter, what economy is going and many more. As we also know, there are
also specific place for investment to be done. It will involve capital market, Bursa
Malaysia, equity market, debt market and many more. So, we need to know where we
should invest our money whether to invest in high risk market or lower risk market to
gain return in future. Usually, high return will associated with high risk. Well,
Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) is a unit trust fund for Malaysian Bumiputera and
almost a must to own.

REFERENCES

Raising ASB, ASB2 limit to RM300,000 will inculcate savings culture amid rising interest
rate regime. (2022, October 8). themalaysiareserve.com.
https://themalaysianreserve.com/2022/10/08/raising-asb-asb2-limit-to-rm300000-will-
inculcate-savings-culture-amid-rising-interest-rate-regime/

Aziz, A. (2022, October 7). ASB, ASB2 investment cap raised to RM300,000 per account.
theedgemarkets.com. https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/asb-asb2-investment-
cap-raised-rm300000-account

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Bernama. (2022, October 7). ASB, ASB2 limit raised to RM300,000 - Tengku Zafrul.
astroawani.com. https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/asb-asb2-limit-raised-
rm300-000-tengku-zafrul-384711