Official Receiver in Bankruptcy Account
134. The receipts and payments for the year and the assets and liabilities as at 31st March 1963 are set out in Table XXXII. Assets of bankrupt estates produced $912,864. Payments to preferential credi- tors and dividends to unsecured creditors amounted to $85,503 and $759,344 respectively, making a total of $844,847, and unclaimed funds and dividends amounting to $285,778 were transferred to the Bank- ruptcy Estates Account. At the end of the year the assets held by the Official Receiver on account of bankruptcies totalled $1,397,990 includ- ing $1,262,802 held in respect of undistributed assets of bankrupt estates, and $120,839 in respect of unclaimed dividends.
Companies Liquidation Account
135. The receipts and payments for the year and the assets and liabilities as at 31st March 1963 are set out in Table XXXIII. Assets of companies in compulsory liquidation produced $124,093, and pay- ments to preferential creditors and dividends to unsecured creditors amounted to $15,011 and $57,242 respectively. The assets held for this account at the end of the year totalled $1,063,241.
136. Section 270 of the Companies Ordinance provides that if where a company is being wound up a liquidator has in his hands or under his control any money representing unclaimed or undistributed assets of the company which have remained unclaimed or undistributed for six months after the date of their receipt, the liquidator shall forthwith pay the money into the companies liquidation account. In pursuance of this provision sums totalling $89,463 and $1,859 were received from liquidators in voluntary liquidations in respect of unclaimed and un- distributed assets respectively. Although there is no obligation on the Official Receiver's Office to take any steps to trace the creditors and shareholders to whom the unclaimed moneys are due, it has adopted the practice of sending to each creditor and shareholder at his last known address a notice informing him of the receipt of the unclaimed sum. In many cases this results in the money being claimed forthwith, and a considerable part of the $52,771 paid to creditors and share- holders of companies in voluntary liquidation was due to the sending of these notices. $101,679 representing unclaimed balances held for over five years was transferred to general revenue. At the end of the year unclaimed dividends and returns of capital amounting to $585,683 in respect of voluntary liquidations and $18,594 in respect of compulsory liquidations were still held in the Companies Liquidation Account.
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