KUALA LUMPUR (April 4): Tabung Haji (TH) is expected to announce its profit distribution in the early part of the second quarter of 2023, upon completion of the audit on the financial statements for the year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY2022), the Dewan Negara was told.

The pilgrim fund had announced the FY2021 profit distribution on Feb 24, 2022 with a rate of 3.1%, unchanged from FY2020.  

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar said TH deposits increased in terms of fund size and the number of new depositors in 2022 compared with 2021.

“The size of the Tabung Haji fund increased from RM83.34 billion in 2021 to RM87.6 billion in 2022,” he said in a written reply on Monday (April 3) to a question posed by Senator Datuk Bobbey Suan.

Mohd Na'im said TH has taken note of the Royal Commission of Inquiry's preliminary feedback and recommendations to announce its profit distribution based on the audited financial statements.

The minister said TH has strived to maintain the level of profit distribution at the level of previous years, although the state of the investment environment in 2022 was tough for all investment institutions.

“Following the extremely challenging global economic landscape, the performance and financial position of TH was also affected. In 2022, the hajj fund also had to bear hajj costs and hajj financial assistance after an absence of hajj operations in the previous two years,” he said.

“There has been a sudden increase in the cost of hajj for the 1443H hajj season following the additional costs imposed by the authorities of Saudi Arabia,” he explained.

Mohd Na'im said depositors' savings were invested in investment assets according to TH's strategic asset allocation (SSA) in fixed income securities investment, equity investment, property investment, money market investment and working capital.

According to the approved SAA framework, TH can invest more than half of its assets in fixed income investments, and this is its largest investment.

“The returns from fixed income or sukuk are stable and the risk is much lower than equity investments. This nature is the choice of most investment institutions including TH because it is in line with their mandate to ensure deposit safety is guaranteed in addition to sustainable long-term returns,” Mohd Na’im said.