ACT 125

COMPANIES ACT 1965 (REVISED - 1973)

PART X - WINDING UP

DIVISION 4 - PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO EVERY MODE OF WINDING UP

Subdivision (2) - Proof and Ranking of Claims

Section 292. Priorities.

(1) Subject to this Act, in a winding up there shall be paid in priority to all other unsecured debts— (a) firstly, the costs and expenses of the winding up including the taxed costs of a petitioner payable under section 220, the remuneration of the liquidator and the costs of any audit carried out pursuant to section 281; (b) secondly, all wages or salary (whether or not earned wholly or in part by way of commission) including any amount payable by way of allowance or reimbursement under any contract of employment or award or agreement regulating conditions of employment, of any employee not exceeding one thousand five hundred ringgit or such other amount as may be prescribed from time to time whether for time or piecework in respect of services rendered by him to the company within a period of four months before the commencement of the winding up; (c) thirdly, all amounts due in respect of worker's compensation under any written law relating to worker's compensation accrued before the commencement of the winding up; (d) fourthly, all remuneration payable to any employee in respect of vacation leave, or in the case of his death to any other person in his right, accrued in respect of any period before the commencement of the winding up; (e) fifthly, all amounts due in respect of contributions payable during the twelve months next before the commencement of the winding up by the company as the employer of any person under any written law relating to employees superannuation or provident funds or under any scheme of superannuation or retirement benefit which is an approved scheme under the federal law relating to income tax; and (f) sixthly, the amount of all federal tax assessed under any written law before the date of the commencement of the winding up or assessed at any time before the time fixed for the proving of debts has expired. (2) The debts in each class specified in subsection (1) shall rank in the order therein specified but as between debts of the same class shall rank equally between themselves, and shall be paid in full, unless the property of the company is insufficient to meet them, in which case they shall abate in equal proportions between themselves. (3) Where any payment has been made to any employee of the company on account of wages, salary or vacation leave out of money advanced by a person for that purpose, the person by whom the money was advanced shall, in a winding up, have a right of priority in respect of the money so advanced and paid, up to the amount by which the sum in respect of which the employee would have been entitled to priority in the winding up has been diminished by reason of the payment, and shall have the same right of priority in respect of that amount as the employee would have had if the payment had not been made. (4) So far as the assets of the company available for payment of general creditors are insufficient to meet any preferential debts specified in paragraphs (1)(b), (d) and (e) and any amount payable in priority by virtue of subsection (3), those debts shall have priority over the claims of the holders of debentures under any floating charge created by the company, and shall be paid accordingly out of any property comprised in or subject to that charge. (5) Where the company is under a contract of insurance (entered into before the commencement of the winding up) insured against liability to third parties, then if any such liability is incurred by the company (either before or after the commencement of the winding up) and an amount in respect of that liability is or has been received by the company or the liquidator from the insurer, the amount shall, after deducting any expenses of or incidental to getting in the amount, be paid by the liquidator to the third party in respect of whom the liability was incurred to the extent necessary to discharge that liability or any part of that liability remaining undischarged in priority to all payments in respect of the debts referred to in subsection (1). (6) If the liability of the insurer to the company is less than the liability of the company to the third party nothing in subsection (5) shall limit the rights of the third party in respect of the balance. (7) Subsections (5) and (6) shall have effect notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary entered into after the commencement of this Act. (8) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1)— (a) paragraph (c) of that subsection shall not apply in relation to the winding up of a company in any case where the company is being wound up voluntarily merely for the purpose of reconstruction or of amalgamation with another company and the right to the compensation has on the reconstruction or amalgamation been preserved to the person entitled thereto, or where the company has entered into a contract with an insurer in respect of any liability under any law relating to workers compensation; and (b) where a company has given security for the payment or repayment of any amount to which paragraph (f) of that subsection relates, that paragraph shall apply only in relation to the balance of any such amount remaining due after deducting therefrom the net amount realized from such security. (9) Where in any winding up assets have been recovered under an indemnity for costs of litigation given by certain creditors, or have been protected or preserved by the payment of moneys or the giving of indemnity by creditors, or where expenses in relation to which a creditor has indemnified a liquidator, have been recovered the Court may make such order as it deems just with respect to the distribution of those assets and the amount of those expenses so recovered with a view to giving those creditors an advantage over others in consideration of the risk run by them in so doing.