Commissioner for Oaths Malaysia 2026: Fees & Limits

Sooner or later a Malaysian counter asks you for something odd: not a form, not a receipt, but a statutory declaration — akuan berkanun — signed in front of a Commissioner for Oaths. A lost certificate, a name that does not match across two documents, a bank, a school, a road transport form. The clerk says it like everyone knows what it means. Alamak.

Most people then discover two things the hard way. The price is fixed by gazette, not by the person holding the stamp — and several government pages still show the old one. And the Commissioner for Oaths is not a cheap lawyer: there is a short list of things he is flatly forbidden to do for you, including the thing most people walk in asking for.

Quick Answer: a statutory declaration attested by a Commissioner for Oaths costs RM10.00, plus RM10.00 for every exhibit attached to it, under the Statutory Declarations (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2023, in force since 16 January 2023. You write the declaration yourself, bring your identity card, and sign it in front of him. It is done over the counter at any court, at selected government departments, or at a law firm.

• Where: any court, selected government departments and statutory bodies, offices of advocates and solicitors, or another appointed person — the live directory is on the Chief Registrar’s portal.
• Cost: RM10.00 per declaration and RM10.00 per exhibit. Affidavits run on a different table, from RM2.00 to RM10.00.
• Bring: identity card or passport, and the finished declaration. He may not draft it, and he may not certify a photocopy either.
• Catch: his appointment runs for a fixed term of no more than three years. There is a public list of current appointments, and a separate public list of cancelled ones.

What an SD isThe feeFinding one

A Statutory Declaration Is a Signature With a Law Behind It

A statutory declaration is a written statement you swear to be true, in a form Parliament wrote down. The governing law is the Statutory Declarations Act 1960 — and here is the first thing almost every guide online gets wrong: since the 2016 revision it is Act 783, not Act 13. The revised edition lists Act 13 under laws replaced.

Section 2 names who may take one: a Sessions Court Judge, a Magistrate or a Commissioner for Oaths, or — subject to section 4 of the Notaries Public Act 1959 — a notary public. The form itself is in the Schedule to the Act, in both Malay and English, and the Chief Registrar publishes it for download. The Chief Registrar’s 2025 guidelines add that the statutory declaration format is also the default for any document that has no format of its own under another law.

Section 3 is the sentence that gives the signature its weight: a declaration made under the Act “shall be deemed to be a declaration referred to in sections 199 and 200 of the Penal Code”. No penalty figure is printed here, because the current consolidated Penal Code text is not available on the official portal — but the point stands on its own. A statutory declaration is not a formality you sign to make a clerk happy. If you are unsure whether what you are about to declare is accurate, that is the moment to get legal advice, not the moment to sign.

What the counter actually witnesses, per the guidelines: statutory declarations, affidavits and affirmations, documents prepared by a government department or agency, and any other document a written law specifically provides for. That is why declarations turn up inside other transactions — JPN, for instance, asks for one in several of the birth-register and identity-card routes covered in our guide to changing a name and amending MyKad particulars.

The Fee Is RM10.00 — and Two Official Pages Disagree

The fee is not negotiable and it is not the Commissioner’s to set. Section 4 of Act 783 says the Minister prescribes it by notification in the Gazette. The current notification is the Statutory Declarations (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2023 [P.U. (A) 13], made 13 January 2023 and in force 16 January 2023, which replaced the words RM4.00 and RM2.00 in the 1968 Order with RM10.00.

The trail behind that RM10.00 is worth one line, because it explains why old figures are still floating around. The 1968 Order charged $1.00 per declaration and 70 cents per exhibit; 1973 took it to $2.00 and $1.50; 1993 converted that to RM4.00 and RM2.00, where it sat for three decades until 2023.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: as verified on 14 September 2026, two live official court pages give different figures side by side. The Kuala Lumpur Court Complex page shows the sworn declaration at RM10.00 and cites the 2018 Rules and the 2023 Order. The Melaka State Court page shows RM4.00 and RM2.00 and quotes rule 21 of the Commissioners for Oaths Rules 1993 — rules that rule 22 of the 2018 Rules revoked outright. The gazette is what binds, not the web page.

So how do you know what you should be paying, standing at a counter? Rule 16 answers it: a Commissioner for Oaths who is not a public officer must display, clearly and visibly, a copy of his instrument of appointment, a copy of the rules covering his powers and conduct, a nameplate of 40 centimetre by 50 centimetre, and a signboard of 75 centimetre by 100 centimetre showing the fees. If the board is missing, or the number on it does not match the gazette, complaints about overcharging go to [email protected] or 03-8880 9503.

Two situations cost nothing at all. A client of the Legal Aid Department pays no Commissioner for Oaths fee at court — the department wrote to the Chief Registrar in 2013 asking that the practice be made uniform, citing the Legal Aid Act 1971. And a public-officer Commissioner charges nothing on a document connected to the official duties of a federal or state government department.

Where to Find One, and How to Check He Is Still Appointed

The service sits under the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, not under any ministry. The Commissioners for Oaths Rules 2018 were made under section 11 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, and the day-to-day machinery — applications, exams, interviews, inspections, complaints — runs through the Commissioner for Oaths Unit at the Chief Registrar’s Office in Putrajaya.

Officially, you will find one at any court, at selected government departments and statutory bodies, at offices of advocates and solicitors, or with another appointed person at a specific location. The important part is the next one: an appointment is not permanent. Rule 7 caps appointment and reappointment at three years, and the public portal carries four separate directories — current appointments, past ones, suspended ones and cancelled ones — searchable by name, category, state and town. A revoked appointment is final: rule 19 says such a person shall not be reappointed.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: the official FAQ still tells the public to search at pesuruhjayasumpah.kehakiman.gov.my. As verified on 14 September 2026, that hostname does not resolve. The working directory is on the e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah portal, linked in Sources below.

On hours: a Commissioner for Oaths who is a public officer keeps government office hours and is limited by the department’s payment counter, which usually closes earlier than the office does. Private ones keep normal office hours. Nobody is supposed to offer the service on a public holiday or a bank holiday. The Kuala Lumpur Court Complex counter, for one worked example, is on Level 1 and runs Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 3.45 pm.

What Has to Happen at the Counter

Bring your identity card or passport and bring the declaration already written. Rule 11 requires the Commissioner for Oaths to attend to you personally and to verify your identity and address against your identity card, passport or other official identification — he is checking that the person in front of him is the person named in the document.

You sign in front of him, not before. He may not affix his seal unless you sign or place your thumbprint on the document in his presence, and rule 13 says no oath counts as administered until you have signed, his seal is on it, and he has signed too. If a document needs more than one deponent, everyone appears together, on the same date and at the same time. Nobody signs for anybody — not a sibling, not a donee under a power of attorney.

Two things at the counter are free and often not offered. If you do not understand the language of the document, he must translate it or have it translated in front of him at no charge, and add a jurat at the foot of the document recording that this was done. And the guidelines encourage a desk and stationery so you can fill the document in yourself, again with no extra charge. He is allowed to charge a reasonable, agreed amount for supplying a blank form — that is the only add-on the portal recognises, other than agreed travel cost where he has been approved to come to you.

If the deponent cannot come — in hospital, bedridden, in a detention centre — a family member or representative asks a Commissioner for Oaths to attend, and he must file that request with the Unit at least three working days before the date. That lead time is the part people miss.

Six Things a Commissioner for Oaths Cannot Do for You

• Certify a photocopy. A directive dated 13 June 2005 states he has no power to certify any document, and he may not put his seal on the copy. The route that does work: you make a statutory declaration that the attached copy is true, he attests that, and he prepares an exhibit-identification certificate — free of charge — that is signed and sealed and attached.
• Write your declaration. Drafting is the deponent’s job. Preparing pre-formatted declarations, or filling in a blank Form Am 80 for you, counts as improper assistance, and charging for drafting is forbidden outright.
• Be your witness. A directive dated 3 November 2015 bars a Commissioner for Oaths from witnessing a document, agreement or declaration unless a written law allows it. A clarification dated 9 June 2026 lists the exceptions: the Powers of Attorney Act 1949 forms, a loan agreement under the Moneylenders Act 1951, an agreement under the Hire-Purchase Act 1967, section 97 of the Sabah Land Ordinance, and section 84 of the Legal Profession Act 1976.
• Attest his own, or his family’s. No personal declarations, and none for a spouse, child or parent.
• Work wherever he likes. Rule 15 stops him changing his address of service, or serving outside it, without the Chief Justice’s approval.
• Touch a document his own firm prepared for a court matter it is running. Rules 9 and 10 both carve that out.

These are not soft conventions. Rule 20 makes a breach of the conduct, powers, seal, register, address, display and fee rules an offence, punishable on conviction with a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both. He also has a positive duty under rule 11 to refuse service where he has credible cause to suspect deception, fraud or duress. If he asks you questions about your own document, that is the rule, not rudeness.

When the Document Is Leaving Malaysia

This is where most confusion lives, and the statute settles it in one sentence. Section 4(1) of the Notaries Public Act 1959 gives a notary public the powers ordinarily exercised by notaries public in England — then takes away the power to administer an oath for, or to take or attest, any affidavit or statutory declaration executed for use in a court or place within Malaysia. Section 4(2) hands it back in three cases: confirming or proving the due execution of a document, a ship’s master or crew on a matter concerning the vessel, and documents for use in a court or place outside Malaysia.

So the split is not about seniority, and it is not an absolute rule that anything leaving the country must go to a notary public: a statutory declaration affirmed before a Malaysian Commissioner for Oaths is not barred from acceptance abroad, and whether a given receiving country or institution accepts it is up to that country, not this Act. What section 4 actually removes is a notary public’s own power to take a domestic statutory declaration for use within Malaysia, while leaving the notary route open for documents genuinely bound for use outside the country. Commissioners for Oaths and notaries public are also appointed by different people: the Commissioner for Oaths by the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, the notary public by the Attorney General under subsection 3(1) of Act 115, after consulting the Bar Council or the State Attorney General, with every appointment gazetted. Acting as a notary public without being one is an offence carrying a fine not exceeding five hundred ringgit. Notary fees are left to rules under section 7; no current published scale is available on the federal legislation portal, so ask before you commit.

The third layer is Wisma Putra. The Consular Division attests Malaysian documents — statutory declarations are named on its list — to validate the stamp and signatures before the document is used outside the country. It is walk-in, submitted in person or by a representative with an identity card or passport, and normally returned the same day or the next working day. One rule matters before you go: if you are not presenting the original document, the copy must be endorsed by a notary public first. The counter detail, hours and email are in our guide to the Certificate of Good Conduct, which uses the same counter.

On the question everybody asks next — whether an apostille is available — this section follows the ministry’s own site and nothing else. The attestation page, updated 7 June 2023, describes endorsement by the Consular Division and then by the relevant foreign mission; no apostille page exists anywhere on kln.gov.my as at 14 September 2026. Treat the KLN site and the destination country’s mission in Malaysia as the authority, and ask them which chain they want before you pay for any step. KLN publishes no fee for attestation on that page either.

Walaoeh Verdict

Check two things before you hand anything over: the signboard and the directory. The signboard tells you the fee the law allows; the directory tells you whether the appointment is still alive. Both take a minute, both are free, and between them they remove the only two ways this small transaction usually goes wrong — paying more than the gazette allows, and getting a seal from someone whose term has lapsed.

After that, the job is mostly yours, not his. Write the declaration before you arrive, because he is not allowed to write it and not allowed to charge for writing it. Bring the original if the point is to prove a copy, and if you cannot, expect the declaration-plus-exhibit route rather than a certified photocopy. And if the document is going overseas, work backwards from the receiving country: ask the mission or institution what chain of endorsement it wants first — a Commissioner for Oaths, a notary public, Wisma Putra’s Consular Division, or some combination — instead of assuming a notary is always required and discovering at the end that the wrong officer signed it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Sources

Every figure here comes from an official Malaysian government source — the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court’s e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah portal and the gazettes published on it, the Kuala Lumpur and Melaka court portals, the federal legislation portal at lom.agc.gov.my, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — each fetched and read on 14 September 2026. Where two official pages disagree, both are shown above. Several of the Chief Registrar’s directives are scanned letters with no text layer and were read by optical character recognition of the page images.

• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — the Chief Registrar’s portal for Commissioners for Oaths
• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — the official FAQ (fees, conduct, what is not allowed)
• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — directory of current appointments
• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — directory of cancelled appointments
• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — laws and practice directions (the source of the gazettes and letters below)
• e-Pesuruhjaya Sumpah — forms and guidelines, including the official statutory declaration form
• Commissioners for Oaths Rules 2018 [P.U. (A) 67/2018] — the gazette, including both Schedules
• Statutory Declarations Act 1960 [Act 783], revised edition
• Statutory Declarations (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2023 [P.U. (A) 13] — the RM10.00
• Statutory Declarations (Fees) Order 1968 [P.U. 506/1968], with the 1973 and 1993 amendments
• Chief Registrar — Guidelines on the management and administration of Commissioners for Oaths (2025)
• Chief Registrar — directive: no certified true copies
• Chief Registrar — clarification on when a Commissioner for Oaths may be a witness
• Legal Aid Department — no Commissioner for Oaths fee for its clients
• Chief Registrar’s Office — the Commissioner for Oaths Unit
• Kuala Lumpur Court Complex — counter location, hours and fee table
• Melaka State Court — the page still quoting the 1993 rates
• Notaries Public Act 1959 [Act 115] — reprint, sections 3, 4 and 6
• Laws of Malaysia — the federal legislation portal (notary appointments are gazetted as P.U. (B) notices)
• Wisma Putra — Attestation of Documents

Commissioner for Oaths Unit, Chief Registrar’s Office of the Federal Court, Level 1 (South), Annexe Building, Istana Kehakiman, Precinct 3, 62506 Putrajaya: 03-8880 9503, [email protected]. Complaints about a Commissioner for Oaths: [email protected]. Wisma Putra Consular Division, Attestation of Documents Unit: 03-8000 8000, [email protected]. One note on sourcing: the brief for this article named bheuu.gov.my, the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department. Its public portal publishes no Commissioner for Oaths service page, directory or fee — the system is administered by the Chief Registrar’s Office, and that is where everything above comes from.