PETALING JAYA: The total amount of unclaimed monies in the country stands at RM4.53bil, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussein said.
The monies include dividends, insurance claims, deposits and bank drafts.
He added that the owners and inheritors of these monies might not be aware of the existence of the funds and could make enquiries at the nearest branches of Bank Negara and submit claims.
“If the monies are not claimed within the stipulated period, the Government may borrow it for development purposes for the benefit of the people,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Awang Adek said the Government has over the years used the unclaimed funds for public expenditures.
Referring to official figures by the Accountant-General’s Department, Dr Awang Adek said from 1977 to 1996, RM653mil of such funds have been used for various public programmes.
According to the Unclaimed Monies Act 1965, unclaimed monies are those which are legally payable to the owner but have remained unpaid for a period of not less than one year.
This include money credited into a trading or a personal account which has been inactive for more than two and seven years respectively.
Dr Awang Adek said the next-of-kin or the children of some of the deceased depositors did not even know about the money that was left behind.
Some of the these monies were left in the Employees Provident Fund or in the banks, he added.
- Source from The Star, 21 February 2011.
