Religious affairs minister Na’im Mokhtar said a report from a royal commission of inquiry set up earlier required TH to announce the distribution of dividend only after the audit had been completed.

“So it will take some time to announce the date for distribution of the dividend,” he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2023 (Budget 2023) at Dewan Negara.

He was responding to a question by Apandi Mohamad on the matter.

Last year, the dividend was announced on Feb 24.

Meanwhile, Na’im said the government was committed to producing quality huffaz (memorisers of the Quran) by adopting various strategies in line with the National Tahfiz Education Policy launched in 2018.

He said that based on the data from the department of Islamic development Malaysia (Jakim), a total of 10,675 huffaz were produced as of February this year, with 2,102 of them professional huffaz from eight institutions of higher learning.