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Ma’ruf calls on Muslims to increase zakat to reduce inequality
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said the zakat, if managed well, will decrease the welfare gap in the country
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Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said the zakat, if managed well, will decrease the welfare gap in the country.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 8th World Zakat Forum (WZF) 2019 in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday, Ma’ruf said the zakat alms tax, one of the rukun Islam (five pillars of Islam), could have a direct impact on the social and economic condition in Indonesia, where 90 percent of the population is Muslim.
“Islam allows everybody to collect as much halal wealth as possible but there is also an obligation to put aside some wealth to be given to the poor,” said the senior cleric and former Indonesian Ulema Council leader.
Ma’ruf said the zakat potential in Indonesia was an estimated Rp 230 trillion (US$16.43 billion) but so far only about 3.5 percent, or Rp 8 trillion, of the potential was collected and managed.
He expressed concerns over the large unmanaged zakat potential, saying that he had received a report that, for the last five years, only about 24 percent of the potential was collected nationwide.
“We need a breakthrough to make it better,” he said, adding that one way of improving zakat management was to use digital information technology to increase the trust of muzakki (zakat donors).
Ma’ruf said the work of state-sponsored collecting agencies Zakat Amil Agency (BAZ) and Zakal Amil Institution (LAZ) in collecting, managing and distributing the zakat were relatively good. Yet both needed to continue making innovations in zakat distribution to improve people’s empowerment, productivity and reduce poverty.
BAZ and LAZ, he added, also had to answer zakat payers’ demands that their payments be allocated to mustahiq (zakat recipients) in their respective regions.
“There has to be a solution because the zakat obligation also comes with a sharia (Islamic law) to help the poor nearby,” Ma’ruf said.
He added that the government would issue a regulation on zakat digitalization to be applied by zakat institutions.
“The use of technology in zakat institutions can improve the transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of zakat management,” he said, adding that doing so would increase the credibility of the respective zakat institutions.
From the zakat payers’ side, he continued, the use of technology would ease payment and would also enable them to monitor the distribution of the zakat they paid.
WZF secretary general Bambang Sudibyo said the National Zakat Amil Agency (Baznas) had implemented digital technology in managing zakat but until 2016 the digital collection remained zero.
The following year the figure was 8 percent and increased to 12 percent in 2018. “Insya Allah (God willing) this year it will reach 15 percent and by 2020 it will reach 25 percent,” he said.
WZF executive secretary Irfan Syauqi Beik said that the 8th WZF 2019 was initially planned to be held in Brunei, but as the country could not do so, Indonesia was asked to become the host.
Representatives of at least 30 out of the 33 member states joined the conference that ran until Wednesday. They included Malaysia, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Bahrain, Jordan, Sudan, Arab Saudi, South Africa, Australia, the United States, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brunei, India, the United Kingdom, Maldives, Cambodia, Uganda and Vietnam.
On Tuesday, Bambang and United Nations Development Program Indonesia resident representative Christophe Bahuet, signed a memorandum of understanding on various international programs in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next three years.
Bambang said that there had been doubts in Indonesia whether the zakat suited the SDGs. To eliminate the doubts, he added, the Baznas issued a zakat fiqh (jurisprudence ruling) for SDGs. Some were published in English.
“In our view there is no problem with it. It will even accelerate the realization of the SDGs,” Bambang said, adding that both zakat and the SDGs had human wealth as their objectives.
