Obligatory Zakah for Corporate Entity

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The Indonesian council of ulama has issued a fatwa of zakah (charitable deeds) which is wajib or obligatory for corporate entity, but to whose accountability? Because in Islamic rule, wajib means compulsory where the doer will get the reward in the hereafter but the one who refused to do so will received a punishment (as he has committed a sin), and yet, for a corporation, who will be responsible and oblige to follow the said fatwa? Who will get the punishment in the hereafter, for not paying zakah? Those questionnaires have emerged during the seminar of the fatwa of zakah by Indonesian Council of Ulama, which is obligatory and how it will be applied, the seminar was held on (2/4) at BNI Syariah.

In responds to those questionnaires, Wahfiudin, MBA, the Islamic bankers, and members of shariah board of Dompet Dhuafa has responded:

“For corporate entities the obligation to pay zakah is for the stock holders and the middle management individually, not under the name of a corporation. As explained by Wahfiudin.

Yet, there is some other problem, such as: for public entity where the stock has been listing in a stock exchange there will be some complication, since the owner of the stocks will rapidly change on daily basis.

“Therefore, before going to implement this fatwa, all legal aspects must be made cleared first,” exclaimed Wahfiudin.

Read more at pkesinteraktif

Trust Finance Syariah Lending

Just read about Trust Finance lending at news.

Unit syariah PT Trust Finance Indonesia Tbk menargetkan penyaluran kredit kepemilikan mobil Rp10 miliar-Rp15 miliar selama triwulan I 2007 dari total target pembiayaan berskema syariah Rp40 miliar pada tahun ini.

Kepala Unit Syariah Trust Finance Dadang Ariyoes mengatakan hingga kini perseroan itu telah menyalurkan kredit sekitar Rp2 miliar untuk mobil komersial maupun non-komersial dalam skema syariah. Untuk akhir Februari, lanjut dia, Trust akan memperluas cabang unit syariahnya di Medan Sumatra Utara dan Aceh dengan menjajaki wilayah itu lebih dulu.

"Kami sudah berbicara dengan pemerintah daerah di sana. Dengan perluasan itu diharapkan target tahun ini senilai Rp40 miliar akan tercapai," ujar Dadang saat dihubungi Bisnis, kemarin di Jakarta.

Selain dua wilayah itu, sambung dia, perseroan juga akan membuka cabangnya di Surabaya dan kota-kota yang terletak di Jawa Timur paling lambat akhir Juni 2007. Jumlah Rp10 miliar-Rp15 miliar itu, tambah dia, merupakan nilai rata-rata dari pembiayaan syariah untuk tiga bulan berikutnya.

Trust Finance merupakan perusahaan pembiayaan pertama yang membuka unit syariah dalam penyaluran kredit kepemilikan mobil. Sedangkan perusahaan pembiayaan yang memiliki unit syariah lainnya lebih memfokuskan untuk membiayai otomotif roda dua.

Dia menjelaskan dalam penyaluran kredit mobil berskema syariah, pihaknya harus menjelaskan lebih detail kepada calon konsumen apa yang membedakannya dengan pembiayaan konvensional. Dadang menjelaskan sosialisasi secara besar-besaran juga akan dilakukan pada Februari.

Dadang menjelaskan perseroan tidak menargetkan pangsa pasar tertentu dalam membiayai kredit kepemilikan mobil. "Ada mobil komersial seperti dump truck maupun truk biasa, sedangkan untuk mobil komersial seperti sedan."

Untuk sumber dana, sambung dia, Trust Finance telah bekerja sama dengan sejumlah bank syariah seperti Bank Syariah Mandiri dan Bank Danamon Syariah. Menurut Dadang, perseroan itu memiliki kecukupan dana untuk menyalurkan kredit berbasiskan syariah Rp40 miliar hingga akhir tahun.

Menurut dia, kondisi banjir yang terjadi di Jakarta awal Februari juga memengaruhi bisnis pembiayaan terutama sektor otomotif roda empat bekas. Dadang menjelaskan konsumen sekarang punya ketakutan jika dirinya membeli mobil bekas yang terendam banjir beberapa waktu lalu.

Menurut dia, bisnis pembiayaan otomotif roda empat dinilai melambat akibat banjir besar yang terjadi beberapa waktu lalu. Namun, Dadang menjelaskan lambatnya bisnis pembiayaan itu hanya terjadi di Jakarta, dan tidak berlaku di daerah-daerah.

Read more at Bisnis Indonesia

Master’s Program on Syariah Finance

The Master’s Management Program at the Faculty of Economy, University of Indonesia, is launching a master program on Syariah Finance Management today.

It is expected that the program will support people to be good at analyzing, leading, and applying Syariah law in finance functions.

Through a press release yesterday, the master’s program administration said it had noticed significant growth in the Syariah finance sector and thereby qualified human resources would be needed.

Simulations by Bank Indonesia show that the Syariah banking industry needs 22,521 employees.

While currently there are only around 8,000 people working in the Syariah banking sector.

Agricultural Sector in Syariah Finance

As we know, one of the main problems in agricultural development is the weakness of capital support. The government have tried to overcome this problem by launching some credit programs for the agricultural sector.

Many credit programs, those use fixed interest base, showed less satisfied result. In any cases even generate new problems such as the the greater farmer’s debt and also nonperformance credit.

Based on that phenomena it is required the alternative financing schemes. Sharia scheme, can be choosen as the alternative financing model for supporting agricultural development. Different to the conventional credit, the sharia scheme is free of interest, profit loss sharing equity principle, and profit sharing will be executed in the end of transaction.

To support implementation of sharia finance in agricultural sector, the crucial factors are political will of policy maker and also intensive socialization related to sharia principle finance to public authority and society.


Reference at :pse.litbang.deptan.go.id.com