KAPAR, July 13 — The Selangor Zakat Board (LZS) is conducting a study to increase the kifayah limit rate, which is the minimum rate of basic requirements of the cost of living of an individual or a family, to suit the current economic situation.
Its chief executive officer Mohd Sabirin Mohd Sarbini said the board will look into the matter as a whole, and for now, the distribution of aid to asnaf (those eligible to receive zakat or tithe) was still using the existing rate.
He said although around 2,000 families had been successfully removed from the asnaf category every year, the number of applications for becoming asnaf was higher.
“As of now, about 65,000 asnaf families are being assisted by LZS and it is estimated that there is about a six per cent increase in the number of asnaf every year,” Mohd Sabirin told the media after the ‘Korban Perdana’ programme at the LZS Bait Al-Hasanah Complex today.
He was commenting on reporters’ inquiries on whether LZS would increase tithe assistance to asnaf, similar to what has been implemented by the Melaka Islamic Religious Council to about 9,000 recipients in the state starting in May.
Meanwhile, Mohd Sabirin said LZS is now on track to achieve the tithe collection target of RM1.05 billion this year, and he hoped that more existing and new zakat payers would start paying their tithes in compliance with one of the five pillars of Islam, in line with the Zakat Assessment Month campaign launched on June 23.
“LZS would like to invite zakat payers in Selangor to participate in the campaign, which is from June 15 to July 31, with the aim of raising awareness of paying zakat through salary deduction,” he said.
Earlier, Mohd Sabirin said a total of 13 cattle and four goats had been sacrificed through the sacrificial rites programme in conjunction with the Aidiladha celebration, and the meat would be distributed to 300 poor and needy people around Klang, Petaling and Kuala Langat districts.
— Bernama
