Another RM180m ‘unclaimed’ in 4 months, Dewan Rakyat told

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM5.96 billion in unclaimed money remains uncollected as of Oct 31, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Finance Minister Othman Aziz said this in reply to a question by Ahmad Fauzi Zahari (BN-Setiawangsa), who had asked on the latest status of such funds and the steps taken to raise public awareness on the existence of this money.

The amount of unclaimed money has risen by about RM180 million in a matter of four months.

This is because at the last sitting of the Dewan Rakyat in July, Othman was reported to have said that the amount of unclaimed money as at June 30 this year, stood at RM5.78 billion.

On the latter part of Fauzi’s question today, Othman said among the remedial steps taken by his ministry was the setting up of booths to explain to visitors on unclaimed money as well as to give them the opportunity to check if they have any money unclaimed.

“Also, in the second quarter of 2018, the Electronic Government Unclaimed Money Information System (eGumis) will be activated to make it easier for people to access and check their status,” he said.

The unclaimed money has three classifications.

The first is money that is to be lawfully paid to an individual within a year but remains uncollected, like salaries, bonuses and commissions.

The second is money in an account untouched over a seven-year period in savings accounts.

The third is money in a commercial account without any transactions over a two-year period.

To a supplementary question from Ahmad Fauzi on the types of unclaimed money which were uncollected, Othman (BN-Jerlun) said 70% were from the category concerning banking matters, such as current, savings and matured fixed deposit accounts.

Another 18%, Othman said, were in relation to insurance claims, while the remaining 12% were in relation to the commercial accounts. -FMT