KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council Zakat Collection Centre (PPZ-MAIWP) hopes to encourage more cooperative members to participate in making zakat payments through the Wakalah scheme.
Its chairman, Tan Seri Dr Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, said that this scheme is a zakat (tithe) refund policy to generate more zakat funds and continue distributing them to eligible recipients (asnaf).
Elaborating on this, Abdul Aziz explained that cooperatives that pay business tithe exceeding RM1 million annually are eligible for a 50 per cent refund, while employers who mandate salary deductions for at least 80 per cent of their employees and make tithe deductions exceeding RM100,000 annually qualify for a 37.5 per cent share of the tithe funds.
He added that this scheme also provides an opportunity for cooperatives involved to distribute tithe independently to eligible groups, indirectly increasing public trust in the cooperatives.
"Until today, the total tithe collection from January has increased to RM746 million compared to RM635.8 million last year."
"Of that amount, RM109 million comes from business tithe collections, an increase of 16 per cent compared to last year, which was RM94 million," he said at the 2023 Cooperative Business Zakat Programme, held here today (November 30).
Abdul Aziz said that from the total business tithe collection, over RM4 million was successfully collected from cooperative businesses, involving 40 cooperatives.
He added that the increased tithe collection reflects the confidence of the Islamic community in the Federal Territories in PPZ-MAIWP.
He added that this increase also signifies the growing awareness among Muslims about tithe payments in our country.
Furthermore, Abdul Aziz expressed that PPZ-MAIWP is confident that the target of RM1 billion in tithe collection can be achieved before the end of this year.
Meanwhile, PPZ-MAIWP today received tithe contributions amounting to RM5,058,136 from 19 cooperatives.
"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the cooperatives involved, especially the Board Members of the Cooperatives, for fulfilling their business tithe obligations at PPZ-MAIWP.
"Indeed, this tithe will be distributed to those in need, especially in urban areas, where the cost of living has increased," he said. — Bernama