The Malaysian Institute of Accountants is split – what’s next?

PETALING JAYA: The outcome of the Malaysian Institute of Accoun-tants’s (MIA) AGM on Saturday indicates that the gap in the membership may be widening between small accounting firms on one side, and the rest of the fraternity on the other. The former are dissatisfied with the profession’s regulatory framework and, judging from the voting at the AGM, their call for change is gaining momentum.

Those at the meeting rejected four resolutions, endorsed by the MIA council, to raise the annual membership subscriptions and the annual practising certificate fee. Similar resolutions failed to secure enough votes at last year’s AGM.

On the other hand, six motions that had been proposed and seconded by two members got the nod. These motions were essentially gestures of protest against certain rules that govern the supervision of accounting practitioners.

Christina Foo says it’s up to the council to recommend action.

Newly-elected MIA council member Subramaniam Sankar, a senior audit partner in the accounting firm of HALS & Associates, had proposed all six motions. The seconder was Chan Kah Kooi, also with HALS & Associates.

Subramaniam told StarBiz that the next step for the MIA membership and the Government was to determine whether the institute should be a regulator or a professional association.

“If it is decided that the MIA is to be a regulatory body, then we need another professional association to represent our interests and to provide technical expertise. We can’t leave it to the international accounting bodies. We should have a Malaysian organisation,” he added.

Set up under the Accountants Act 1967, the MIA’s chief tasks are to regulate and develop the accountancy profession in Malaysia. It is in fact a hybrid organisation, embracing the roles of both a regulator and a professional body.

MIA vice president Christina Foo acknowledged that by voting against the resolutions and for the motions, the members represented at the AGM had spoken.

“It’s now for the council to deliberate on these matters and to recommend the appropriate actions. If we need to follow up with the other authorities – and these issues do involve them – we will liaise with them,” she said.

According to Foo, the council meetings for the year had been pre-scheduled and it was up to MIA president Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid to call for an emergency meeting if necessary.

At the start of the AGM in Kuala Lumpur, which lasted over four hours, a member questioned Abdul Rahim’s eligibility to chair the meeting, alleging that the president was not independent.

When members wanted to put this to a vote, Abdul Rahim instead stepped aside and Foo took over.

The dissenting mood continued when the resolutions and motions were tabled. The voting was via ballots, when it became clear that a show of hands would not go unquestioned.

One of the motions proposes that “necessary steps be taken so that all matters that affect only the rights of members in practice be voted upon only by members in practice.”

Another motion proposes that the MIA council takes steps to control the interview process for the issuing of audit licences, instead of a panel comprising various third parties and the MIA as the minority.

Subramaniam also proposed that there be a separate register for practitioners “so as to accord them with respective rights and obligations required to be in practice.”

The members at the AGM also agreed with the motion that the council should make efforts to abolish the need to renew audit licences every two years.

Subramaniam said if efforts to push for these changes through the MIA failed, it might be necessary for the practitioners to bypass the institute.

He is vice president of the Malaysian Association of Small and Medium Accounting Firms, which currently has about 50 members.

In contrast, the MIA has a total membership of almost 27,000. About two thirds of these are professional accountants in business, while a quarter of this population are in public practice.

According to the MIA’s latest annual report, as at June 30, it had 2,036 member firms, including 1,356 audit firms.

Industry insiders reckoned that at least 1,500 firms could be considered small.

Source: BizStar

New oil palm clone set to double palm oil yield up to 10 tonnes per ha

KOTA KINABALU: A new oil palm clone dubbed Wakuba oil palm ramet brand was launched with a promise of doubling the current oil yield.

Named after TSH Resources Bhd unit TSH Biotech Sdn Bhd’s five-year-old tissue-culture laboratory in Wakuba Gading, Tawau, Sabah, the new clone promises an oil yield of up to 10 tonnes per ha compared with the average current yield of about 4.5 tonnes per ha in the country.

TSH Resources chairman Datuk Kelvin Tan said the company had invested RM25mil in the laboratory, which is expected to produce 1.5 million ramets by 2015 compared with 500,000 this year.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok launched the product in conjunction with the 2010 National Seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining, Environment and Quality here yesterday.

Delighted with the new clone From left: Datuk Mohd Basri Wahid, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Datuk Kelvin Tan after the MOA signing.

Dompok also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and TSH Resources.

MPOB was represented by its director-general Datuk Dr Mohd BasriWahid and TSH Resources by Tan.

The new MOA extends the technical collaboration on genetic marking to further improve efficiency and quality of ramets produced at the laboratory.

Tan said the project was initiated in 2005 between TSH Biotech’s laboratory and MPOB with technology transfer from MPOB to clone elite palm trees as part of of public and private sector initiative.

“We know that there is less land available in Sabah for oil palm so, we have to increase yield through technology,” Tan said.

Based on MPOB statistics, 1.1 million ha of the 1.4 million ha planted with oil palm in Sabah are now mature, indicating potential for high-yield Wakuba clones to replace ageing palms.

This collaboration will allow superior oil palm materials to be available especially to smallholders and plantations in Sabah.

At the current crude palm oil price, a smallholder with 6ha can potentially earn an incremental income of RM30,000 a year using cloned shoots, Tan added.

Meanwhile, Basri described the synergy between the two parties and success of Wakuba ramets as a landmark achievement for the clonal industry.

Commercialisation was an important element in research and development as this was where the concept of bench-to-market came into fruition, Basri said.

Dompok said the collaboration between MPOB and TSH Resources in setting up tissue culture lab was a success in the development and production of palm clones.

The achievement in oil palm breeding and biotechnology in producing high quality material would boost industry productivity and quality of palm oil products, he added.

Dompok also launched the TKJ organic fertiliser that is formulated using refinery waste which has potential to enhance soil fertility, promotes plant growth and improve yield and crop quality.

The high grade fertiliser was produced in a collaboration between MPOB and MPV Technologies.

Source: BizStar

Regulation of betting and gambling in Malaysia

The Malaysian Ministry of Finance regulates betting, gaming and wagering activities along the following principles and objectives:

Objective

To renew existing gambling license/permit by adhering to guidelines/regulations of law, enforcement of laws on gambling and collecting optimum returns in a proper and orderly manner.

Function

• Processing applications and certifying to government for purposes of licensing and controlling gambling activities and ensuring that conditions stated in the licences are adhered to by license holders.
• Collecting tax and other charges relating to licensed gambling.
• Coordinating and monitoring steps to prevent unlicensed gambling activities.
• Reviewing and evaluating laws and regulations concerning gambling.
• Providing advisory service in ascertaining the types of entertainment that may or may not involve/contain gambling elements.

Government Policies

On the whole and based on social and religious implications, it is the government's policy not to encourage the growth of gambling activities. However, since our population consists of a mixed community, and to control and reduce illegal gambling activities, certain types of gambling have been allowed. Even so, the Government exercises strict control so that gambling does not influence the younger generation.

In line with the policy, the Government itself is not directly involved in carrying out any gambling activities. This is evident by the closing down of the Lottery Board in 1991. Although the Government allows private corporations to run gambling activities, it has exercised strict control on these activities. Among the controls exercised are:

• The government is not issuing new licenses for any kind of gambling.
• Gambling licenses are not issued to Muslims
• Muslims are not allowed into gambling premises.
• Those below the age of 21, including school children, are prohibited from gambling and entering the gambling premises.
• Gambling premises are not allowed near schools or places of worship.
• Betting premises must be well-partitioned if sharing premises
• Betting premises are not allowed to operate in shopping and office complexes.

Services provided:

• Renewal of gambling license/permits
• Make inspection visits to gambling premises
• Processing applications for change of address of premises/principal officer
• Applications for change of gambling machines
• Approvals to hold competitions for promotion purposes/lucky draws.
• Approvals to import entertainment machines/spare parts.

Laws:

• The Betting and Sweepstakes Duties Act, 1948
• The Lotteries Act 1952
• The Common Gaming House Act 1953
• The Betting Ordinance 1953
• The Racing (Totalisator Board) Act 1961
• The Pool Betting Act 1967
• The Gaming Tax Act 1972
• Racing Club (Public Sweepstakes) Act 1965

Proposed disposal of numbers forecast operator Pan Malaysian Pools

Analysts have differing views on the potential buyers of Tanjong plc’s Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd (PMP), with some saying the two existing gaming players could potentially be the buyers while some contend the two firms will derive no synergy from buying PMP.

source of picture

Analysts said news of Tanjong wanting to sell off its gaming unit did not come as a surprise as the group had been wanting to hive off the unit. “It is hardly the kind of decision that companies make overnight. There has been market talk that Tanjong are looking to sell off its gaming unit,” an analyst said.

On Monday, StarBiz reported that Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd (UT) was in the midst of finalising plans too sell PMP, post privatisation.

‘’It is only a question of time. UT is now busy finalising the funding of Tanjong’s privatisation. But once that is settled, gaming will be hived off as the focus is on the power business,’’ a banker familiar with the plans told StarBiz.

PMP operates the racing and numbers forecast totalisator businesses. For the financial year ended Jan 31 (FY10), its number forecast totalisator business posted an operating profit of RM234.8mil on revenue of RM730.8mil. Its racing totalisator business posted an operating loss of RM65.8mil in FY10.

A bank-backed analyst believes the potential buyer for PMP is “unlikely” to be the existing players.

She said a new player could emerge as the purchase would provide “little synergy” for existing players to buy. Adding more outlets would not really make a difference for the existing players as they were all established players, she said.

She reckons both Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (BToto) and Magnum Corp Sdn Bhd have the resources to purchase PMP.

As of April 30, BToto had deposits, cash and bank balances of RM257.2mil. Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd unit Magnum had cash and bank balances of RM514.3mil as at June 30.

The domestic gaming industry is dominated by BToto, Magnum and PMP. There are also several other players in Sabah and Sarawak.

All three major players could not be reached for comments.

Another analyst said the gaming industry was highly regulated and that potential buyers needed to get approval from the Finance Ministry for any acquisition.

He said the Government might like to consolidate the industry. But he said he was unsure whether the sale would be via tender or negotiation.

He said PMP had the least number of branches and games compared with BToto and Magnum but noted that PMP’s cashflow was still good.

He reckons that if any of the existing players are interested, they would be after PMP’s outlets given that the Government had stop issuing licences for them. And if new players were involved, they would want to introduce new games and compete against BToto and Magnum, he said.

The analyst said the hiving off exercise would not affect the privatisation of Tanjong as UT had already offered to take Tanjong private at RM21.80 cash per share.

“PMP is famous for its three-digit (3D) games and horse racing is not an ‘in’ thing. Nevertheless, it is a cash generating business,” he said.

He said the gaming business when disposed of could reduce the borrowing for the privatisation exercise.

In another development, Tanjong Capital Sdn Bhd told Bursa Malaysia that its offer to acquire all the voting shares in Tanjong at a cash price of RM21.80 per share became unconditional yesterday.

Tanjong Capital said it had, by virtue of having received , before the close of its offer to take Tanjong private, valid acceptances in respect of its offer, acquired or unconditionally contracted to acquire not less than 90% of the offer shares and not less than 90% of the voting rights attached to the offer shares.

Tanjong Capital had highlighted it did not intend to maintain the listing status of Tanjong on Bursa if the 90% acceptance condition was achieved.

Sourced from StarBiz

Interest Schemes FAQs by SSM

The Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia - SSM) has produced a useful set of FAQs for the burgeoning interest schemes sector here. The FAQs are reproduced below for ease of reference.

It should be noted that although the FAQs are title captioned "Interest Scheme" they relate more to recreational clubs scenarios.

Most interested parties seek information on Interest Schemes that are in the nature of "common enterprise" as opposed to recreational clubs. Inquiries of this nature can be directed to our law firm at c_t_choo@yahoo.com

Are all clubs required to be registered with SSM?

Not all clubs are required to be registered with SSM. Only clubs falling within the definition of section 84 of the Companies Act 1965 and unlisted recreational clubs must be registered with SSM.

How long does it take to register an interest scheme?

It takes 14 days from the date of receipt of a complete application to register an interest scheme.

What is the required paid-up capital?

The required paid-up capital is RM5 million for golf clubs and RM1 million for other clubs or schemes.

Can the club memberships be transferred?

Club memberships can be transferred depending on the conditions set by the operator company.

Who can be appointed as Trustees of clubs?

Only Trust Companies registered under the Trust Companies Act 1949 which have obtained prior approval for appointment from the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs can be appointed as Trustees.

Who determines the membership fees?

The operator company determines the membership fees.

Is any payment required for lodgement of the Trust Deed?

Before the Trust Deed is lodged, a draft must be submitted for perusal and approval. The perusal fee for the said draft is RM250.00.

What is the registration fee for a prospectus of an interest scheme?

The registration fee is RM1,300.00.

Are there any guidelines issued by SSM for interest schemes?

The two guidelines issued by SSM are: Policy Guidelines and Requirements for Timesharing Arrangements; Policy Guidelines and Requirements for Sales of Club Memberships.