This polemic is actually nothing new. A law on zakat collection has existed since 2011, followed by related legislation in the form of a government regulation, presidential instruction and ministerial regulation in 2014. Why has it reemerged as a controversy? Because it is a religious issue, especially of Islam, which has become a hot topic for Indonesians in the current political year.

The discourse reemerged in early February 2018 when Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said he would prepare a presidential decree related to zakat collection. He hoped it would boost the zakat collection, which only amounted to about Rp 6 trillion (US$438 million) a year, given the high potential revenue of Rp 270 trillion in zakat.

There are several issues surrounding zakat management in the country. First, the lack of a national database. The absence of integrated data on zakat cast the figure mentioned by the minister in a questionable light.

The estimated potential of Rp 270 trillion in zakat collection is based on the 2015 estimate of Rp 286 trillion made by the National Zakat Board of Indonesia (Baznas), which was later used to calculate the zakat assumption in successive years.

The “zakat potential” the minister mentioned consists of individual and corporate zakat, as well as other religious social funds.

Then, what is the ratio between individual zakat contributions and the potential revenue? According to the Islamic Development Bank, citing the 2010 zakat potential of Rp 217 trillion, individual zakat would contribute one-third of the potential collection and corporate zakat would make up the rest. However, the realized zakat collection was far below the assumption. Nevertheless, this low proportion of individual zakat made up more than half of the total zakat that was collected.

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