Nisab of zakat al-mal lowered

The Islamic Ministry has lowered the nisab or threshold figure for zakat al-mal.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry announced that the nisab for zakat al-mal has been changed to MVR 7,151.90.

The nisab was last changed in May, when it was set to MVR 7,312.55.

The new figure is a decrease of MVR 160.65.

Zakat al-mal is the obligation upon every Muslim man and woman having certain amount of wealth kept for a year, to pay a certain amount to deserving people.

Those who have held savings of MVR 7,151.90 for over a year will therefore be obligation to pay 2.5 percent as zakat.

In Maldives, nisab is calculated using the price of silver in the market.

The price of silver is set by the central bank of Maldives, MMA.