Prospects of poverty elimination through potential zakat collection in OIC-member countries: reappraised

This paper is the extended and updated version of Shirazi (2006), which covers 38 OIC member countries. The paper estimates the resource required and potential zakat collection for poverty elimination. The paper employed the poverty gap index based on US $1.25 a day and US $2.0 a day estimated by the World Bank (2009). Zakat potential has been estimated by employing Kahf (1989) method of estimation with some modifications. The paper finds that half of the sample countries not only meet their resource shortfall by potential zakat collection but also generate surplus funds, which are sufficient for the resource deficit countries. The paper suggests pooling of zakat funds from the zakat surplus countries and providing for the resource deficit countries to eliminate the poverty.