Draft Amendment to the Zakat Law of 1988

The draft amendment to the Zakat Law is still under deliberation by the competent authorities. The most prominent amendments brought by the law are the payment of the value of Zakat from the income tax incurred by the taxpayer instead of paying it from the total income. The law also establishes a public institution for Zakat instead of the current Zakat fund; seeks to encourage individuals to pay their zakat to the Public Institution for Zakat, increasing the institution's revenues and further expanding its projects, thus reaching more beneficiaries. It also calls for the establishment of a body of scholars whose task is to control the expenditures of Zakat funds within the Public Institution of Zakat.