Baznas Aims to Receive Rp5 Trillion in Donation
31 March 2015 05:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Alms Agency (Baznas) said that it had received a total of Rp3 trillion in donations in 2014 - up from its 2013 total donations that stood at Rp2.3 trillion. “We are aiming for Rp5 trillion in 2015,” said Baznas’ Chairman, Didin Hafidhuddin, at the Bank Indonesia (BI) Complex on Monday.
Didin also said that he hopes that the uptrend would continue in the future, especially since Baznas’ calculations projected that if every Indonesian Muslims donate to Baznas, the potential income from charity could reach around Rp217 trillion.
One of Baznas’ efforts to reach its target is by reforming the way the organization collects its donations - officers are now instructed - if not, encouraged - to visit the charity donors, or muzakkis.
The Chairman for the Executive Board of Indonesia’s Charity Agency’s (BWI), Maftuh Basyuni, said that not only could charity contributions could accelerate Indonesia’s economic growth, it could also help with the acceleration of the progress of Indonesia’s infrastructure progress. For example, according to BWI’s data, there has been 4 billion square meters of land - spread across 400,000 sites across Indonesia - that had been donated to the government.
BWI also noted that Indonesia’s charitable contribution potential could reach Rp20 trillion, although the total donation that it had received in 2013 only peaked at Rp350 billion.
Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo said that his officials will step up its efforts to increase the quality of the management of those charitable contributions, which would involve members of the Shariah Council from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Baznas, and the BWI. By involving all stakeholders in the management of the contributions, it is hoped that they could help create a cooperation framework which would help grant financial access to those who had been previously barred from accessing credit from conventional financial institutions.
It is known that as much as 40 percent of Indonesians are still left without access to credit or financing options of any kind. “Hopefully, such cooperation and the use of these charitable contributions could increase Indonesia’s financial inclusiveness, by expanding access to credit as well as further developing Indonesia’s production bases, which will consequently boost incomes,” said Martowardojo.
ADITYA BUDIMAN
