Question

Assalaam alaikum Mufti Sahab I have a pharmacy shop. How will calculate the zakat on my medicine which comes and goes and also has a expiry date.

Answer

Any items purchased with the intention to sell will be zakatable. Hence, on your zakat date, you will take account of all the stock that you have in your pharmacy and work out their combined selling price. You will then pay zakat of 2.5% on this amount along with any cash the business has.

When calculating zakat of stock, products are valued according to their current saleable value. Hence in relation to the expiry date, if the products have passed their expiry date and it is not possible to sell those products at all and thus they have no value, then they will not be zakatable. On the other hand, if it is possible to sell those products, even privately at a minimal price, then the over dated stock will be zakatable at that value.

You may find the following series helpful when calculating zakat:

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel