Zetrix submits a settlement proposal, but the questions over how RM314 million went unremitted remain

PUTRAJAYA: Zetrix AI Bhd has submitted a settlement proposal to the government over RM314 million in unremitted Road Transport Department collections, two days after its services as a collection agent were suspended.

In a filing to the stock exchange, the company said the group's immediate priority was to resolve those obligations and work towards restoring the affected services, subject to the relevant approvals.

The terms of the proposal were not disclosed, including the amount to be paid, the settlement schedule and whether any assets or guarantees were offered.

The suspension of MyEG Sdn Bhd and Zetrix AI took effect on October 5. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the RM314 million covered collections between May 19 and September 30 that had not been transferred to his ministry's main revenue collection account.

The ministry and the department will pursue legal action to recover the full amount.

Four months before any action

The timeline Loke set out shows the arrears accumulated from May, rather than over three years as some earlier reports had suggested.

Over that period the government issued 35 reminder notices and held four engagement sessions with stakeholders, including the Finance Ministry, before the payment channels were finally suspended.

One attempt at settlement also failed. On August 21 the company submitted a cheque for RM231 million dated September 30 to cover the arrears then outstanding, but the bank did not process it when it was presented on that date because the company had instructed it not to, according to Loke.

That sequence leaves several governance questions unanswered.

Among them: what remittance schedule the agreements required, what early-warning system was in place to detect the gap between collections and money reaching the Treasury, who was responsible for reconciling the accounts, and what level of arrears should have triggered an automatic suspension.

Those questions are material because MyEG and Zetrix were acting as collection agents for government revenue. Under that arrangement, money paid by motorists for departmental transactions was not company revenue but collections that had to be passed on to the government under the terms of the agreement.

Loke made that point in announcing the suspension, saying the money had been collected on the government's behalf and did not belong to the companies.

Doubts over the capacity to pay

In a research note published on October 5, MBSB Research said Zetrix AI faced the risk of struggling to settle the RM314 million.

That assessment makes the contents of the settlement proposal more consequential than the fact that one has been submitted.

Departmental services remain available to the public through the MyJPJ app, the department's public portal, counters and kiosks, while mobile units are operating at the Malaysia-Singapore border crossings for fines involving non-Malaysian motorists.

The status of transactions already paid for but not completed before the suspension has yet to be fully explained.