Sustainable investment enables TH to bear subsidies for Haj pilgrims

MADINAH: The proper and sustainable investment planning undertaken by the Pilgrims Fund Board (Tabung Haji (TH)) has guaranteed profitable returns which enabled it to bear the subsidies for 22,320 Malaysian pilgrims this year, amounting to RM160 million.
Acting TH chief executive officer Datuk Johan Abdullah said the agency's investment activities were carried out mainly in Malaysia, Makkah, Madinah, United Kingdom and Australia.
"TH's investment objective is to generate sustainable income through investments.
"Diversification of its investments is based on the Strategic Asset Allocation, that is to generate competitive returns on investments in various classes of assets according to reasonable level of risk," he told the Malaysian press here after checking TH's preparations for this year's haj season.
TH in a statement said that in 2015, the financial performance of the agency was good with revenue recorded at RM4.47 billion and net profit of RM3.53 billion after zakat (tithe) payments.
"It is the highest revenue and profit recorded by TH in its 52 years of operation.
"From this investment profit, TH was able to give bonus to its contributors and bear the subsidies for haj pilgrims each year," Johan said.
He said TH had been able to maintain the haj payment at RM9,980 for each pilgrim this year even though the actual cost for haj pilgrimage this season had risen to RM18,890 per person.
"TH will provide a subsidy of RM8,910 for each pilgrim," he said, adding that the subsidies borne by TH over the past 10 years had reach approximately RM815 million. — Bernama