‘WAQF ACT DRAFT TO BE TABLED THIS YEAR’
Reviews pending with stakeholders such as finance minister, state governments
THE government is expected to table the draft of Waqf Act in Parliament by yearend, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh.
She said the draft was ready but still pending reviews and discussions with various stakeholders, including the finance minister and state governments.
“The Waqf Act aims to look at how we manage the endowment funds. Before this, in regards to how we manage (wakaf), there is no clear guideline at the federal government level.
“Different states have different enactment. That is why we are
facing difficulties in the collection of funds.
“Issues like where it goes to, how we ensure the integrity of the funds and so on, these are things that are going to be addressed in the Act.
“Wakaf is under state purview, but we need to standardise it. If not, then we face difficulties in the implementation,” said Fuziah at the Sixth International Conference on Islamic Wealth Management and Financial Planning, here, yesterday.
She said under the Act, the government was looking at the implementation of tax rebate for wakaf, among others.
“Before this, it (tax rebate) has not been even explored. That is why we are exploring it and we are discussing on that.
“We need to look into what are the things that need to be done to make it part of the procedures. We need to either enact a law or amend the existing law. We have to look at all these technicalities.”
Meanwhile, Fuziah said the government would come up with the Social Economic Development of the Muslim Ummah Master plan soon.
She said the master plan was specifically focus on the economic development of the asnaf, the groups entitled to receive zakat (tithe).
“Before this, under the purview of the ministry, there is the Yayasan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia that looks into the social economic development of the ummah.
“However, it needs to be empowered further. We need to look at it with more depth on various instrument and activities.
“Before this, all the instrument that are used to assist asnaf have zero effect of bringing them out of poverty. So, we need to look at it in-depth and in details,” said Fuziah.