The National Board of Zakat (BAZNAS) is ready to support Indonesian Council of Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia or MUI) fatawa regarding the sanitation and drinking water facilities. Chairman of BAZNAS, Prof. Bambang Sudibyo said that zakat, infaq, and sadaqah (ZIS) are part of programs to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Prof. Bambang stated that BAZNAS will prepare to be a better official zakat organization since zakat has been included to the Masterplan of Indonesian Islamic Financial Architecture (MAKSI) which was launched by the National Development Agency (Bappenas). Later on, all official zakat organizations in Indonesia will be supervised by Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan or OJK).

He also said, cooperation between BAZNAS with Bappenas, MUI, and Indonesian Waqf Board (Badan Wakaf Indonesia or BWI) is expected to ease muzakki to pay zakat to an official zakat organization. As one of an unsolved problem until now is that the huge number of muzakki who does not pay his zakat obligation through an official zakat organization in accordance with Al-Quran and regulation in the Zakat Act.

“In order to collect and distribute zakat, we must be credible, accountable, and on target so that we can help poor people from various social problems. One of them is the problem of clean water and sanitation,” he said. Tuesday (10/1)

(Source: republika.co.id /khonsa/ puskasbaznas.com)