Late birth registration period extended to 60 days

The matter was cited in the Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Act 2016 tabled by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed at the Dewan Rakyat, Wednesday.

Nur Jazlan said the move was made after taking into account the diversity of the situations and the background of the Malaysian society today and in conformity with government policy which has extended maternity leave to 90 days.

He said for the record, 124,762 late registration of births were recorded throughout 2010 to 2015.

He said the amendment would include allowing the registration of birth of children born in Peninsular Malaysia to be done in any National Registration Department (NRD) offices and not necessarily at the place of birth.

He said in the case of normal birth, the period for registering the baby's details would also be extended from 14 to 60 days.

Nur Jazlan said death registration has been extended to seven days as opposed to the current 24 hours and a death that occurs in Peninsular Malaysia can be registered at any registration area unlike before, at the place of death.

In addition, the period to provide information about a death to the registrar will be extended from 12 hours to seven days, he said.

He said for the record, 72,929 cases of late registration of deaths were recorded from 2003 to 2014.

Meanwhile, when winding up the debate, he stressed that fines for those who failed to register births or deaths would be increased from RM1,000 to RM20,000, and imprisonment of 12 months to three years.