Coordinating Minister Muhaimin: Zakat Distribution Must Use DTSEN for Precision Targeting

Jakarta — The Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar has emphasised the importance of distributing zakat, infak, and sedekah (Islamic charitable donations) based on Indonesia’s National Socioeconomic Data (DTSEN) to ensure that disbursements are effective, efficient, and precisely targeted.

“We will continue to collaborate this potential through accurate unified data so that when we address poverty and backwardness, it is precisely targeted,” Muhaimin Iskandar said in Jakarta on Friday.

According to him, precise targeting of distribution would increase the trust of muzakki, or those who give zakat. “When it is precisely targeted, people trust to contribute. When people trust to contribute, then mutual aid becomes more rational. Mutual aid becomes better and more effective in addressing poverty,” Muhaimin Iskandar said.

He noted that the social potential of zakat, infak, and sedekah is very significant and must be managed properly to help the lives of poor and extremely poor communities, and to empower them. He also encouraged the distribution of zakat, infak, and sedekah to enable poor communities to move up the economic ladder and become empowered and self-reliant.

“We ensure that zakat, infak, and sedekah do not only occur during Ramadan and remain purely charitable, but instead we operate based on DTSEN. We encourage all our communities to move up the economic ladder to become empowered and self-reliant. We care for the poor whilst also encouraging them to become empowered,” he said.

The government is targeting the collection of zakat, infak, and sedekah at Rp44 trillion by 2026.