Corporate Compliance in Malaysia: Statutory Declaration

While requesting the appointed Company Secretary to certify true copy (CTC) of some business-related documents, getting a statutory declaration is also one of the common practices amongst business owners who set up their business entities in Malaysia.

As per the Statutory Declaration Act 1960, a statutory declaration is a formal statement made by an individual as a supporting document required by the regulation. It will be signed in the presence of a solicitor, commissioner of oath or a notary public.

Such statements are generally used to satisfy legal requirements as well as regulations when no physical evidence is available at that point of time. Hence, the statutory declaration is required to be truthful and accurate.

In Malaysia, a statutory declaration is used to finalise a Company financial statement before it is lodged to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM). Other situations of when statutory declarations are used include:

As stated above, the law which governs the statutory declaration in Malaysia is the Statutory Declaration Act 1960. The Act requires those documents with Statutory Declaration to be sworn or declared its truth and accuracy, with no elements of misrepresentation.

Pursuant to Section 2 of Statutory Declaration Act 1960, those who may take and receive such declaration from a person voluntarily making such declaration is the Notary Public or Commissioner of Oath. The person will be charged of a fee for engaging such service.

Pursuant to Section 3 of Statutory Declaration Act 1960, those who make false declarations will be penalised if caught.

For foreign directors who wish to sign off their Malaysian registered Company financial statement and is not in Malaysia on the signing date, they are required to have the statutory declaration section signed by the Notary Public in the country he is residing at that time.

Normally, the commissioner of oath or notary public will furnish a printed letter to the declarer to fill. This will be titled the statutory declaration form.

However, there are cases where the declarer is required to write the declaration themselves in front of the commissioner of oath or notary public.

In such situation, the statutory declaration must contain the words below. This provides a sample of the statutory declaration in Malaysia. There is no specific statutory declaration form in Malaysia, but the template to write a statutory declaration is below.

Sample of Statutory Declaration Form in Malaysia

I, (name)(NRIC/ID No.:) of (residential address) do solemnly and sincerely declare that …..

And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the declaration to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declaration Act, 1960.

Affirmed by: (Name)

At: (Place)

On: (Date and time)

Before me,

Commissioner of Oaths

It is known that we are not living in the same situation as we did before the pandemic outbreak. Even though the strict standard operation (SOP) is to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, but it does not make things easier for those who urgently need to engage some legal advisory and services.

As stated, statutory declaration in Malaysia is required for the certification of certain Company / business related documents to be lodged with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM). The fact that such occurrence will need both parties, the client and the appointed notary public or commissioner of oath to be physically present to conduct such act raise concern.

To mitigate such situation, one of the options available for the statutory declaration in Malaysia to be executed is by conducting a video conference call. However, as Covid-19 is slowly labelled as an endemic, the firms have started appointment basis for clients who wish to get their statutory declaration done.