THE government will study the need to raise the insolvency threshold to prevent more youth from going bankrupt, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

The Bera MP said he will discuss with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and Bank Negara Malaysia governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus on the matter. 

The current threshold for bankruptcy is RM100,000. 

“I’m worried looking at the numbers that are there at the moment and worried if those numbers will continue to rise,” he said. 

“The government previously raised the bankruptcy threshold during the pandemic, and suspended laws involving bankruptcy and the threshold value has been reviewed. 

“Insha Allah, I will discuss with the law minister to look at the matter again. I will also meet the Bank Negara governor to see in terms of the law if it (threshold) can be increased further.” 

Ismail said this after officiating at the closing ceremony of Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth Job Fair at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur this afternoon. 

“The agenda of young people is a priority for the government,” he said. 

According to the latest statistics by the Insolvency Department, 18 people were declared bankrupt every day in the first five months of this year. 

Its data, posted on its website, shows that between January and May, 2,694 people were declared bankrupt, bringing the number of bankruptcies in the country to 274,628. 

Nearly 60% of those who were declared bankrupt from 2018 until May this year were between 25 and 44 years old. 

On September 20, 2020, the Insolvency Act was amended to increase the bankruptcy threshold from RM50,000 to RM100,000.

In his speech, the Umno vice-president said the government was targeting to create up to 600,000 jobs with an allocation of RM4.8 billion. 

Records from the Department of Statistics Malaysia show that as of April, the country’s unemployment rate has dropped below 4% for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic struck when it recorded a rate of 3.9%. 

In comparison, the same period in 2021 showed a record rate of 4.6%. – June 26, 2022.