Parliament revises Act 342 amendments, penalties lowered

PARLIAMENT | The Health Ministry has lowered some of the penalties in the bill proposing amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342).

This came after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim declared yesterday they cannot support the bill in the form it was tabled.

There were three changes made to the bill today, revolving around the maximum punishment to be meted out under the Act.

The first was to revise Clause 9 of the bill by lowering the initially proposed maximum RM100,000 fine or seven years’ jail under Section 24(a) to “RM50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years” in the case of an individual.

Section 24 deals with “general penalty” for “any persons who commit an offence under the Act for which no penalty is expressly provided”.

The second was to reduce the proposed punishments in Section 25(b), from a fine not exceeding RM1 million for a corporate body to the decreased amount of RM500,000.

The third change substitutes the proposed addition of Section 31(3) to a compound not exceeding RM20,000 or an imprisonment term not exceeding three years or both.

The original version of the bill had proposed maximum penalties from a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or imprisonment not exceeding two years or both for the same section.

Act 342 currently gives the health director-general the power to impose a maximum fine of RM1,000 against individuals who flout standard operating procedures, such as failure to wear a face mask in a public place.

Anwar had yesterday said the opposition bench has stated to the prime minister its objections to the bill in the form it was tabled.

The bill, which was tabled for its first reading yesterday, had initially proposed a maximum fine of RM100,000 or a jail term not exceeding seven years for individual offenders. - Mkini