Total deposits hitting RM88 billion, a record high recorded by Lembaga Tabung Haji as of May 2022, This marks an increase of almost 16% from RM75.92 billion as of Dec 31, 2020.
The increase was also quite significant as monthly net deposits had reached more than RM1 billion, acting executive director of operations Mohamed Ameen Abdul Wahab said.
“For the record, Tabung Haji recorded a net deposit of RM1.1 billion for April 2022, among the highest monthly net deposits to date, reflecting the confidence of Muslims in Malaysia towards Tabung Haji,” he said.
Under the HIJRAH24 Strategic Transformation Plan, Tabung Haji targets total deposits of RM100 billion.
Tabung Haji announced a profit distribution after zakat (tithe) of 3.1% for 2021, benefiting more than 8.4 million depositors, involving a total distribution of RM2.46 billion compared with RM2.24 billion distributed in 2020, an increase of RM219 million.
Mohamed Ameen said at the moment, about 55% of Muslims in Malaysia still do not have a Tabung Haji account.
“The number of Tabung Haji depositors at the moment is about 8.5 million, while the number of Muslims in Malaysia, according to 2020 statistics, is about 18.9 million. About 45% of Malaysians who are Muslims are Tabung Haji depositors,” he said.
“Tabung Haji is always committed to improving its services in an effort to encourage all Muslims in Malaysia to have a Tabung Haji account,” he added.
He said deposits earned from such savings would be invested to earn profits which would then be ascertained for zakat.
“In 2021, Tabung Haji handed over RM106 million zakat to asnaf (deserving recipients of zakat) nationwide. If 55% of Malaysian Muslims, who still don’t have a Tabung Haji account, open a Tabung Haji account, the deposit size will grow and more profits can be generated to help more asnaf nationwide,” he said.
Tabung Haji has also reportedly improved its services in line with the needs of consumers as account opening can be done online and applicants only need to attend any Tabung Haji branch nationwide for biometric verification only.
“Tabung Haji has now automated all the services offered at the branch, in digital form or online. This means that all the services that we can do at the branch, whether financial transactions or for the haj, can now be done online,” he said.
He said that this year, for the first time, Tabung Haji released the haj offer online through the THiJARI application and would-be pilgrims could reply to the offer through the same application, without having to come to the branch to submit the offer acceptance form.
The THiJARI digital platform was launched in February 2020 and has now reached more than 1.5 million users and over one million users of mobile phone applications.
“We receive nearly 90,000 online transactions daily. These figures reflect depositors’ acceptance of the efforts we have undertaken,” he said.
However, he said depositors, who are less proficient with online services, could still enjoy all these services traditionally at the counters of Tabung Haji branches.
“We also have another channel where we work with our bank partners, namely Bank Islam, Bank Rakyat, Maybank, CIMB and, most recently, AmBank,” he added.
