Dewan Negara Passes Amendments To Unclaimed Moneys Act 1965

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

4th April 2024 - 2 min read

The Unclaimed Moneys (Amendment) Bill 2024 has been passed in Dewan Negara, unanimously approved following deliberations by nine senators. With this, one of the revisions that will be implemented is the reduction of the waiting period before unclaimed money can be reclassified as government revenue.

This amendment, specifically, will affect Subsection 11(2) of the Unclaimed Moneys Act 1965 (Act 370), which currently says that unclaimed money that has been credited to the Consolidated Trust Account can only be transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account for government use after a lapse of 15 years. Following this update, this 15-year waiting period will be reduced to 10 years.

“Unclaimed money transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account can contribute to the government’s expenditure needs, especially in meeting the country’s socio-economic objectives and economic recovery measures,” said the deputy finance minister, Lim Hui Ying, who presented the amendment bill for its second reading.

Additionally, Lim emphasised that even after the unclaimed money has been transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account following the lapsed period, eligible owners will still be able to submit requests for their unclaimed funds. She also revealed that once the amendment bill has been passed, the amount of unclaimed money to be transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account will stand at RM1.98 billion at the start of its implementation.

For context, unclaimed money refers to funds that are “legally payable to the owner but have remained unpaid for a period of not less than one year”. These include salaries, bonuses, and payments that are due to employees, insurance claims which have been approved for payment, fixed deposits that have matured, as well as money in bank accounts that have not been operated by the owner for more than seven years.

The Finance Ministry also revealed previously that the amount of unclaimed money as of 30 April 2023 stood at RM11.2 billion.

(Source: Malay Mail)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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