Addu City Council has stated that the Council cannot carry out Zakath procedures this year due to the events of last year.

A statement released by the Council on Sunday, said that even though the Ministry had announced that the Council will carry out procedures to accept Zakath payments, it will not be done by the Council this year. The statement said that last year, the payments had been halted after claimants had posed questions regarding the distribution officials regarding the distribution. It noted that Ministry officials had not been able to answer these questions and the attempts to distribute the funds had been unsuccessful, even with Police assistance. The statement added that in the ensuing dispute Council Secretariat building was damaged and employees suffered emotional disturbance as well.

The Council further stated that MVR 48,977, collected from the previous year, still remained undistributed and that Islamic Ministry is yet to issue instructions regarding this amount.

The Council said no solution had been found for the issues of the previous year and so far no arrangements had been made between the Council and the Ministry to accept payments. Therefore, even though the Ministry had made that statement, there was no way the Council can carry out this endeavor.

The Council noted that it was the responsibility of the Ministry to ensure that there are procedures and processes to collect, determine who can receive the proceeds and the distribution of the said proceeds.