Ketirisan bayaran Zakat Fitrah terhadap institusi formal di Malaysia

Zakat is the fourth pillar of Islam and mandatory to be conducted by every Muslim with the compliance of syara’ prescription. Among the types of zakat that closely related to every Muslim is Zakat Fitrah. The law of zakat fitrah is mandatory and has its own specific duration of payment. Thus, this article intends to analyze the extend of payment made by the Muslim society using the formal channel through Zakat Centre. Based on the amount of zakat fitrah collection, the rate of zakat fitrah and the number of Muslim in Malaysia, the finding of the study indicates that the amount of zakat fitrah is increasing each year. However, the result also finds that the payment of zakat through informal channel or direct distribution to receivers is also increasing. Therefore, direct distribution must be controlled to ensure the government objective in establishing the zakat centre is efficiently achieved due to the fact that centralized distribution will ensure fairness and justice.