KOTA BHARU: The Islamic Religious Council and Malay Customs Of Kelantan (MAIK) has received RM4.2 million from the Finance Ministry to build 80 houses for recipients (asnaf) in the state via ‘Bantuan Rumah Kediaman’ (housing assistance).
MAIK deputy president, Zulkiflie Ab Rahman said, they have requested the heads of each district to send a list of recipients who are truly eligible according to the conditions that have been set.
He said, each residence built will involve a construction cost of RM48,000 for a three room house with an area of 860 square feet.
“This aid programme has been around since 2004, and every year MAIK has built 160 houses on land belonging to the recipient group or family land that has been granted permission involving 10 districts, namely 16 houses for each district. For this year, 160 houses are being built and are almost ready.
“However, this year, we are asking for an additional allocation from the Finance Ministry to build another 80 houses for the asnaf group which is expected to be completed by next year. In fact, with this provision, we can complete the waiting list under ‘Bantuan Rumah Kediaman’,” he said.
He said this to reporters at the Business Zakat Presentation Ceremony and Agrobank Strategic Cooperation Discussion at the MAIK Office here today which was also attended by Agrobank Kelantan and Terengganu regional director Syed Ibrahim Syed Mohd Al-Mashor.
Earlier, Syed Ibrahim presented Agrobank’s RM142,733 worth of business zakat (tithe) to MAIK.
Meanwhile, in another development, Zulkiflie said that this year they were targetting a zakat collection of RM210 million.
He said, until yesterday RM130 million had been collected and they were confident of achieving the remaining target of RM80 million.
“We have employed various strategies including promoting state government departments to encourage their staff and officers to pay zakat through salary deductions.
“Now we are working with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to develop an application that is expected to be launched next month to make it easier for the community, including traders, to make zakat deductions via the app.
“In fact, we are also conducting business zakat seminars in collaboration with UiTM and the Companies Commission of Malaysia to spread the word about business zakat to the community,” he said. -Bernama
