Vice President Ma'ruf Amin Presents 3,152 Waqf Land Certificates

Vice President (Wapres) Ma'ruf Amin handed over 3,152 waqf land certificates, at the Vice President's Office, Jakarta, Monday (25/4/2022). ANTARA/HO-BPMI Setwapres

JAKARTA - Vice President (Wapres) Ma'ruf Amin handed over 3,152 certificates of waqf land which are generally designated as mosques, burial grounds, Islamic boarding schools and access to worship for Muslims.

"The designation of waqf land is certainly not limited to worship activities, but can be optimized to improve social welfare and encourage national economic growth," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, at the vice president's office, Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Monday, April 25.

The Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (BPN) Sofyan Djalil, Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Chairman of the Indonesian Waqf Agency Mohammad Nuh, and other relevant officials were also present at the ceremony for the handover of waqf land certificates.

According to the Vice President, so far more than 70 percent of waqf land in Indonesia has been used for the construction of mosques and prayer rooms, even though waqf land has great economic potential, so it needs to be managed effectively and accountably.

"Currently we still have homework related to land waqf management. We must complete this work because the number of waqf lands in Indonesia is not small and is increasing from year to year," said the vice president.

Based on data received by the Vice President, waqf lands are recorded in more than 430 thousand locations, with an area of around 56 thousand hectares. Of this number, only 58 percent have certificates.

Meanwhile, the number of land waqf continues to increase by about 7 percent or more than 3,000 hectares every year.

In 2021, the number of waqf certificates that have been issued by the Ministry of ATR/BPN will reach more than 25 thousand certificates.

"Without an acceleration program, we will need 7-8 years to complete the certification of waqf land. The absence of a certificate not only has the potential to lead to disputes and loss of assets, but also becomes an obstacle in building an accurate database of waqf assets. people, nation and state," said the vice president.

The vice president also asked related parties to do a number of things related to the acceleration of the issuance of waqf land certificates.

"First, the need for a common understanding of the provisions, requirements, and stages of waqf land certification. I hope the Waqf Land Certification Pocket Book can be a guide for implementing elements in the field," said the vice president.

Second, the need for certification and improvement of the competence of the Nazirites.

"Earlier, the Chairperson of the Waqf Board stated that socialization and education related to the process of certifying waqf land, as well as the importance of the legal aspect of land for protection, as well as optimizing the benefits of waqf assets, which are not limited to worship activities, also need to be carried out in a sustainable manner," said the vice president again.

The vice president said that the socialization and education must be sustainable and should not be neglected because they cannot be utilized.

"And third, the need to develop a digital waqf asset database in an integrated 'platform' between stakeholders, which includes reports on waqf asset inventory, mobilization, development, and distribution of benefits to the mauquf 'alaih,' said the vice president.

In the future, the Vice President hopes that the "platform" can also be used to make an inventory of waqf assets other than land, such as money and securities, as well as nazir registration and reporting services.

"Thus, we hope to realize the management of waqf assets in a transparent and accountable manner. The potential for this waqf is enormous, because it has become the government's determination, even for cash waqf, the national cash waqf movement has been launched," said the vice president as well.

The Ministry of ATR/BPN has issued 194,066 waqf certificates to date.

Since the implementation of the Complete Systematic Land Registration Program (PTSL) in 2017 to date, 97,771 waqf certificates have been issued or about 50 percent of the total waqf certificates.

This means that from 2017-2022 there was a very significant acceleration of waqf land certification, namely within a period of 5 years equivalent to 52 years of waqf land registration since the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA) was passed in 1960.

The target in 2022 is to certify waqf land of 50 thousand parcels of land, some of which will be certified through PTSL activities.

In addition, the collaboration between the Ministry of ATR/BPN and the Ministry of Religion is also carried out in integrating data on waqf lands through the Waqf Information System (SIWAK), so that the Government can easily control the utilization and use of all waqf lands in Indonesia.