Dewan Negara passes Courts Bill 2016 and two others

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Negara has passed the Courts (Modes of Commencement of Civil Actions) Bill 2016 which, once it comes into force, will require all commencement of civil actions to be standardised to either originating summons or writ.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim said the Bill was required as the existing legislation, the Rules of Court (ROC) 2012, was only a by-law that could cause confusion among parties when it comes to filing civil actions.

He said the Bill’s provision applies to all commencement of civil actions except in cases when the Act or Ordinance provides exemption, Bernama reported.

Prior to the ROC 2012, the modes for filing civil cases in court were by writ of summons, originating summons, petition and originating motion. Order 5 of the ROC 2012 has reduced the modes to writ and originating summons.

Apart from the Courts Bill, two other Bills, namely, the Labuan Business Activity Tax (Amendment) (Act 445) Bill 2017, and the Judges’ Remuneration (Amendment) Bill 2017 were also passed yesterday.

According to Razali, the Judges’ Remuneration Bill was aimed at amending the Judges’ Remuneration Act 1971 (Act 45).

Among the amendments proposed was judges could resign at any age without losing pension privileges, with the condition that they had served continuously for not less than five years.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz, when tabling the Labuan Bill, said that it would enable the automatic exchange of taxation information between governments and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Through the amendment, the exchange of information will be refined and the collaboration in tax collection will be more effective, which is based on taxpayer’s data that is more accurate and up-to-date,” he said when winding up his speech.

Othman said the Bill would also enable taxation information for companies registered in Labuan to be reported and the international standard of taxation would be complied.

The amendment would also improve the administration of taxes, its assessment and the collection of taxes on offshore business activities within or from Labuan.

All three Bills were passed unanimously without any amendments.