An estimate of Zakat's potential in Morocco

Abstract

Zakat, the third pillar of Islam, is an obligatory alms to eradicate poverty in Muslim societies. It is considered a source of financing for the social sector and an important Islamic tool for wealth redistribution. It also aims to reinforce the principles of solidarity between Muslims, by requiring those with a certain level of wealth to donate part of it to a specific category, as defined mainly by Quranic texts, to help them get out of the poverty zone forever. In Morocco, a special Zakat fund was set up in 1980 under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and has been included in the Finance Act every year but has never been implemented due to a lack of implementing decrees. This fund could be a potential source of “Islamic” financing for investment in the social sector and would thus contribute alongside other programs launched by the Moroccan government to the reduction of vulnerability. This article is divided into three parts, the first focusing on explaining the conceptual framework of Zakat and a literature review, the second on its economic potential by conducting an estimation test based on the two methods described in the work of (Jahangir & Bulut, 2022) and (Shaikh, 2015), the two methods in question concluded an estimate of potential Zakat in Morocco of the order of 1.97% to 3.96% of GDP. Finally, the observations made will be presented and discussed.