KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 – The Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council’s Zakat Collection Centre (PPZ-MAIWP) targets to increase zakat collection from salary deduction to RM313 million this year from RM270.41 million in 2013. General Manager of Operations Mohammed Hassan said for the first quarter of 2014 covering January through March, PPZ-MAIWP collected RM104.32 million in zakat through the salary deduction scheme compared to RM85.51 million in the first quarter of last year.
Government staff contributed RM16.64 million while private sector employees contributed RM87.67 million in the first quarter of this year compared to RM12.37 million and RM73.13 million respectively in the same quarter in 2013. PPZ-MAIWP collected zakat from 84,007 payees last year and aims to collect from 91,800 payees this year through the salary deduction scheme. “Zakat through salary deduction in April this year accounted for 77.86 per cent of the total zakat collection, and 2,254 employers have adopted this system compared with 2,074 employers last year,” he told Bernama.
Muhammad said the salary deduction scheme, also known as the Thohir Scheme, is the most popular channel and received exceptional response from the public and private sector. “The scheme is available across the country with different names, but still using the same Thohir Scheme concept used by us,” he said, adding the scheme also facilitates tax return payments to individuals. He added employers can use the electronic cash payment system to deduct their employees’ salaries, and payments can be made via CIMB Biz-Channel, Maybank2e.net and OCBC Bank (e-Giro). “PPZ-MAIWP targets RM550 million in overall zakat collection this year from 140,00
