SIBU: The Department of Insolvency Malaysia hopes that the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 2016 will give fair treatment to all involved, including creditors, debtors as well as bankrupt principal borrowers and guarantors as well as the department once it is enforced.
The head of Sibu Branch Idlen Ibus stressed that the Department of Insolvency does not declare anyone bankrupt.
“Bankruptcy is a process whereby a debtor is declared a bankrupt pursuant to an Adjudication Order made by the High Court against the debtor if he or she is unable to pay his debts of at least RM30,000,”.
“Actually, the Department of Insolvency’s role is to administer bankruptcy cases. It also helps bankrupts to be discharged from bankruptcy,” he pointed out.
He was speaking at the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 2016 Briefing Roadshow, held at Sarawak Islamic Complex’s Sibu Hall yesterday.
Some 80 representatives from various government departments and agencies, financial institutions and non-governmental organisations here attended the half-day briefing and dialogue session as part of a nationwide roadshow this month.
Among them were the prevention of taking bankruptcy action against social guarantors and raising the minimum threshold for bankruptcy from the present amount of RM30,000 to RM50,000.
“We hope the revamped law will substantially reduce the number of people declared bankrupt, as the minimum threshold has been increased four times from RM1,000 in 1967 to RM50,000 in 2016.”
“This threshold is higher than many developed nations like Singapore (RM46,472.71), United Kingdom (RM27,255.78), but slightly lower than United States (RM69,646.63) and far lower than Thailand (RM124,366.20),” he added.
He said those interested in more details on the new law and how the public can benefit from it can personally come to the Department of Insolvency Malaysia Sibu Branch offices here.