ink feb 2016

Pelikan Asia Sdn Bhd.

Ink Newsletter | February 2016

# Issue 25Newsletter

Remember the Real Adventurers Colouring Contest?

It was held as part of Pelikan’s 2015/16 Back to

School campaign. The contest is now close, and we

are in the process of selecting the winners. Not an

easy task, we received so many quality entries from

all over the country! We can’t wait to show all of you

the impressive work from the participants of the

contest so stay alert so you don’t miss the winners

announcement. All will be revealed soon!

The Gardens Mall organised lion dance for its tenants on 16 February

2016, to celebrate the CNY Year of The Monkey. Pelikan Store was

included and was visited by two lions performing the dance and

blessing ritual. Check out the photos, the lions are not only cute but

they are skillful as well!


Yours sincerely,

Phikyin Loo

Editorialwill take place to continue Pelikan’s branding and promotional efforts in 2016. We will be supporting our amazing partners and channels, along with more direct marketing to consumers. So watch out for new products coming out in March till end of the year and news on a great Back to School season through the Ink Newsletter!

It has been said time and again that Pelikan family members are the perfect ambassadors for the Brand so it is important for all of us to play this role right and create awareness to the people around us. Show Pelikan your support through the social media; follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mypelikan) and Instagram (@pelikan_malaysia). Like and share our news with your friends and family. We would also like to see more contribution from everyone for this newsletter so that INK will truly be the voice of all of us. If you feel like sharing a news or information with us, or you simply want to voice out your opinion on any matters please let us know. We would love to hear from you.

We hope everyone has had a great Chinese New Year celebration and holiday break with family and friends. We can’t wait to get back to starting the Year of the Monkey with our exciting plans for 2016 in store. We’ve got a great product line up for 2016 ahead and matching marketing campaigns to boot. We’re all for pushing the Pelikan brand into greater heights and building a strong brand visibility and awareness amongst the younger generation by establishing stronger distribution channels. We hope someday that everyone can find Pelikan products at the places they shop and buy from.

We just concluded the ‘Real Adventurers’ Colouring Contest that begin on 1 November 2015. We received many beautiful entries from all the Pelikan fans and the quality of the entries are just too good. The winners this year are overwhelmingly talented and looks like the standards have been raised! We are going to announce the winners at the end of February so look out for the announcement soon on our social media sites.

With our Back to School season officially over at the end of January, other events and marketing campaigns

Real Adventurers Colouring

Contest Ends!

In a Bl Marketing News/Events Lion’s Blessing for The Year of Monkey

Times Bookstores’ World Book Day Promo

Our partner Times bookstores is running a promotion to celebrate the World Book Day in the

month of March. Selected Pelikan and herlitz products are included in this promotion that will

be held at all Times bookstores outlets starting from 1st to 31st March. The products include

colouring and writing instruments for Pelikan and pencil pouches and school bags for herlitz.

Under this promotion, Times bookstores members will receive 25% discount and non-members

get to enjoy a 10% discount.

Pelikan is doing a product sampling with a popular youth

magazine, Campus Plus, for their March issue giving away free

erasable highlighters to their readers. The magazine aims to

be the leading source of news, information and resources for

today’s youth, mainly targeting college/uni students as their

main readers. Campus Plus is distributed for free in selected

colleges and popular hangout places so if you know any college

goers or Campus Plus readers do alert them about this.

Since the start of the New Year, Pelikan Store has organised a

total of 7 art classes with different themes. The class now has its

own followers and its popularity has increased if you look at the

number of participants and enquiries received every week. For

those of you who aren’t familiar with the art class, it’s a weekly

class for children held every Sunday at the Pelikan Store, The

Gardens Mall. The class is handled by the experienced teacher

Chia, each week offering the learning of different art techniques

using Pelikan products. See the photos and you can see just how

enjoyable the classes are.

* Product images are for illustration purposes only.* Product prices shown are inclusive of GST.

Free Erasable Highlighter for

Campus Plus Readers

Delicious South maX.file lever arch fileThis herlitz maX.file lever arch file collection is the perfect way to file recipes, holiday memories or documents, and they make great presents.

- Laminated paper cover- Black inner cover - 8 cm spine, stable- FSC Mix- 10-year guaranteeRM 13.70

Product Features: Introducing a new range from herlitz, Delicious South. Delicious South offers five designs with amazing attention to detail. Whether olives, lemons and Italian oil, fiery Spanish delicacies, brightly coloured summer fruits, freshly harvested herbs or dreamy lavender scenes from France, Delicious South range brings a bit of Mediterranean air into your life. Available at Pelikan Store, Isetan & Kinokuniya KLCC and Isetan The Gardens Mall.

Delicious South Hardback notebook- Format: A5- 96 sheets- Squared- Laminated coverRM13.70

Delicious South Spiral pad- Format: A4- 70 sheets- No.28 (squared with 2 margins)- Twin wire, black- Rounded edgesRM8.40

Art Class @ Pelikan Store

Continues

Changes To EPF Contribution Effective March 2016

Should you reduce your Employees’ Statutory Contribution Rate of your EPF for 2016?

With effect from 1st March 2016 (contribution to be made by 15-April-2016), the following contribution rates shall automatically be applicable (reduction should only be reflected from March’s payroll):

For employees below 60 years of age – 11% to 8% (3% reduction for employee’s portion).For employees above 60 years of age – 5.5% to 4% (1.5% reduction for employee’s portion).No change to the employer’ portion of 12% or 13%.

The reduced rates shall be in force until December 2017. Thereafter, the reductions will cease to exist and the normal rates shall be reapplied.

For employers who have employees who would like to retain their current contribution rates notwithstanding the announcement, they must complete and submit the Form KWSP17A Khas 2016 to the nearest EPF branch before 1st March 2016. Without submitting the said Form, the rates must be reduced accordingly.

The form can be downloaded as per the link below:http://www.kwsp.gov.my/portal/documents/10180/153456/KWSP17A__Khas_2016___29012016.pdf

Note that the new monthly contribution rate (Schedule Three) will only be available on EPF website from 16 February 2016 onwards.

This statement is taken from i-admin.com. You can view the full statement at this link https://www.i-admin.com/news/malaysia-changes-to-epf-contribution-effective-march-2016/

This morning I got asked by my wife, exactly what the reduction of the employees EPF contribution means; so here is a view from my side and how I would handle this tough choice.

Currently there are two parties that contribute to your EPF:1-You as the EMPLOYEE2-Your company as the EMPLOYERCurrently the EMPLOYER has a set rate of 12% each month, that MUST be sent to your EPF account.

In 2015 you as the EMPLOYEE would have 11% of your salary deducted.

In 2016, the government has decided to reduce the EMPLOYEE contributions down to 8%, hence you will end up with 3% more in your payslip each and every month.

As an EMPLOYEE, you actually have the option to fill in a form and elect to remain at 11% contributions and not have an extra 3% in your salary!

IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?In my opinion I feel that most people should elect to fill out this form, you should not reduce your contributions; simply because many Malaysians do not have enough in their retirement to be self-sufficient and an extra 3% now in your hand, will not help you much in your daily life.

There is an increasing issue of people running out of money or having to have help from loved ones in later years.

The only reason to reduce your contributions, is if you do not trust the EPF or you feel that you can find a safer home for this money.

Article


Employees Provident FundTo cut or not to cut? One of the most talked about topic right now is whether to stay with your current 11% contribution for Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) or cut it down to 8%. Here, we bring you 3 articles discussing this matter.

*Please note that we are not suggesting staying at 11% or changing to 8% by highlighting these articles. We are merely trying to give as much information as possible to all readers regarding this matter so they could make their own informed decision*

Many newspapers and articles online are saying that the main reason why the government has reduced this rate is to stimulate growth in Malaysia at its most needed time. This will also grow the GST income for the government in the short term and is a move to stabilize an already fragile economy.

This article was written by Stuart Yeomans and was featured in Say Connected website. You can find the full article by following this link http://stuartyeomans.com/2016/02/15/should-you-reduce-your-employees-statutory-contribution-rate-of-your-epf-for-2016/

Will The 3% EPF Contribution Reduction Cost More in Taxes?

As part of its revised Budget 2016 announced on the 28th of January, Putrajaya announced that 8% of all salaries would be deducted for EPF contributions instead of the usual 11% and that the change will take effect until December 2017. Workers, however, can voluntarily opt out of the scheme and maintain the original 11% rate by submitting a form to EPF.

However, it was revealed that majority of workers want to keep their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contribution rate intact at 11% despite the option to reduce it by 3% for two years for a little extra at the end of every month. They told The Malaysian Insider that whatever income they got from cutting their contribution rate to 8% would not significantly impact their expenses, unless they had very high salaries to begin with. Some workers also argued that they do not want to jeopardise their savings for such a small amount of benefits- of which wouldn’t significantly contribute to their financials.

However, word has been spreading on the great vine that the 3% KWSP contribution reduction will cost workers more in taxes, shaking the decision of those who desperately need that small increase in their monthly pay from the 3% KWSP reduction.

Facebook user KY Teoh has taken to Facebook to explain the mechanics of the reduction and to explain that the KWSP contribution reduction will not cost more in taxes.

Below is his post on Facebook.

This article was written by Esmond Lee and was featured in the The Coverage Bureau website. You can find the full article by following this link http://thecoverage.my/news/community/malaysia-will-the-3-epf-contribution-reduction-cost-more-in-taxes/

Pelikan Asia (PASB) celebrated the Chinese New Year in style at Madam Kwan’s, Empire Shopping Gallery. The lunch was held on 3 February, just before most of us left for the long CNY holiday. Check out the photos!

01 | Colour Coordinated PASB at CNY Lunch..

The whole IPC team celebrated the CNY at Chili’s, Empire Shopping Gallery on 3 February. They even invited a few other (those who have been working closely with them) to join their celebration.

02 | ..while IPC Celebrates CNY @ Chili’s

PICB though preferred to go the traditional way by keeping the yee sang tradition alive. They had their yee sang tossing ceremony on 18 Feb.

03 | ..and PICB Goes Traditional

What’s up!


If you have any suggestion or any stories you feel should be published in the next issue of Ink!, please contact Hazri Nasaruddin at [email protected]. Any suggestion is welcome. Thank you.

Message:

PICB and PPMSB got together at Unique Seafood Restaurant, Citta Mall on 22 February to have their official CNY lunch. Happy faces all around!

04 | ..and Another CNY Lunch

Remember we announced in last month Ink Newsletter about the visit to Rumah KIDS? We now have a date, 16 March, 10 am. This is during the week long school holiday in that month. PASB will contribute some cash (part of the proceeds from Christmas Cheer sale) and some stationery supplies for the children. We would like to invite all of you to add your personal contribution to this. The type and amount of the contribution is totally up to you whether it’s cash, food, toiletries, home appliances or clothes. For everyone’s information, Rumah KIDS houses 17 girls and 13 boys, ages of 4-19 years old. If you have any enquiries, please see Hazri (PASB marketing).

05 | Rumah KIDS Visit

www.facebook.com/mypelikan

pelikan_malaysiaFollow us:

ink feb 2016

Documents