MAICSA welcomes the Companies Commission of Malaysia’s (SSM) fees reduction for the incorporation of companies and registration of businesses as announced by the Commission last week.

“The 10% reduction of fee for incorporating companies with capital below RM100,000, and to register or renew business augurs well for small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) while the 15% reduction for incorporating companies with more than RM100,000 capital, and to increase a company’s authorised share capital would aid companies manage their cash flow better and perhaps, to expand their businesses in these very challenging times,” said MAICSA president Akbar Moidunny.

“SSM has taken the bold move to reach out to the business community who are badly affected by the economic downturn. Moreover, this initiative is essential to soften the impact from the declining world trade activities,” added Akbar.

Akbar said that as company secretaries, MAICSA members would be able to bring the good news to their boards of directors and advise them to take the opportunity to expand their businesses, albeit the economic downturn.

“We also laud the waiver of subscription fee for SSM’s e-Lodgement service as company secretaries use this service to lodge or file statutory documents online. Hence, they should make full use of the waiver on company and business e-Lodgement subscription fee to sign up on SSM’s e-Lodgement services to further reduce the cost of doing business. This is an opportunity for company secretaries to try out the service free of charge for a year,” said Akbar.

According to Akbar, after a discussion held with the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC) last year, MAICSA members in public practice had in fact reduced their professional service fees since then to assist the SMEs. This was done to also support the call of the government to find ways to reduce the cost of doing business in Malaysia. He urged other company secretaries to also reduce their professional fees.

“We also hope other government agencies would emulate SSM and reduce relevant fees to facilitate business during these bad times of economic uncertainties.”

“To further spur the economy, we hope the government could reduce the paid up capital for wholesale and retail trade business from RM1 million to RM500,000 as this will encourage more FDIs to invest in Malaysia that will in turn create more job market for unemployed graduates and those who have been retrenched,” added Akbar.

Akbar ended by saying that MAICSA would continuously strive to assist the unemployed to enhance their skills and knowledge to make them more marketable thus, assisting to reduce unemployment in the country.