Minister of State Secretary, Pratikno, encourages BAZNAS to collect zakat from State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) and large private companies in Indonesia, in order to optimize zakat collection.

It was said by Pratikno in a meeting with the leaders of BAZNAS in the Office of the State Secretariat on Thursday (27/4). Attending the event were Vice Chairman of BAZNAS, Zainulbahar Noor, some BAZNAS Members and Head of BAZNAS Secretariat.

Pratikno requested the Minister of Religious Affairs and BAZNAS to seize the opportunities outside the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) which have begun to gather the ZIS.

"This can be started from private companies and SOEs entering the top 20. Because one company alone can oversee hundreds of companies with millions of employees in it," he said.

He also mentioned various big SOEs that hold large zakat potential of employees, including Pertamina which has 120 subsidiaries and three big banks that have a wide network throughout Indonesia namely BRI, Mandiri and BNI.

Meanwhile, some large private companies that have large zakat potential include companies engaged in the field of plantations such as palm. Moreover, currently large companies in Indonesia which are now managed by the second or third generation has different business approach. They are more concerned with the community and love to share.

"Their socio-enterprenership are different so that many children of conglomerates become environmental and social activists. They develop business as well as help the less fortunate," he said.

Deputy Chairman of BAZNAS, Zainulbahar Noor, said that the large potential of zakat can also be encouraged by using Presidential Instruction (Inpres) which requires Muslims who have reached the nishab (zakat income limit) to pay zakat through BAZNAS. The Inpres is an amendment of Presidential Instruction No.3/2014 on the management of zakat.

Currently the rules of zakat in Indonesia are still voluntary, not mandatory. The new Presidential Instruction is currently being prepared by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the National Board of Zakat.

Earlier, Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said that the Inpres is encouraged as the actualization of zakat potential in overcoming the economic imbalance.

Minister of Religious Affairs said that the President also has a high attention to improve the management of zakat both from the collection and from the distribution side.

(Source: http://pusat.baznas.go.id | Transl: amelya/puskasbaznas.com)