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A Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrim has to spend at least Tk 1,24,202 more than a Pakistani pilgrim does and Tk 1,49,007 more than an Indian this year under the government and private schemes to perform Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs of Bangladesh has set Tk 5,21,150 for Hajj package under government management and Tk 5,86,340 for another Hajj package.
The Hajj Committee of India under the Ministry of Minority Affairs has published a guideline for Hajj-2022 and estimated the expenditure ranging from Tk 3, 72,143 to Tk 4, 52,126 and the Federal Cabinet by the Ministry of Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony of Pakistan has fixed Tk 3,96,948 as a tentative amount of the Hajj cost.
Apart from this expenditure, each Hajj pilgrim of these three countries will have to spend additional 810 Saudi Riyal or Tk 19, 683 for sacrificial animal.
The Bangladesh government has announced Tk 5,22,744 Hajj package this year under private management.
The Bangladesh government set earlier at Tk 4,62,150 as minimum hajj package under government management and the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab), a platform of private hajj tour operators, formally set its general package for Hajj at Tk 4, 63,744 at a press conference on May 12.
Indian and Pakistani authorities are yet set the package for private scheme. However, as per the government rules private companies have to follow the Hajj-2022 protocols.
Accordingly, the package of private scheme of the India and Pakistan will be around minimum Tk 1.2 lakh less than the package of private scheme of Bangladesh.
This correspondent has taken minimal amount of these three countries to compare how much more a Bangladeshi pilgrim has to spend to perform Hajj and converted the Pakistani rupee and Indian rupee into taka in the existing exchange rate to compare the expenditure.
The exchange rate was taken on May 29.
The expenses of three countries’ pilgrimage will be finalized only after Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides the actual guidelines and norms for Hajj - 2022, said the three countries’ official documents.
According to a Saudi Gazette report issued by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia on April 23 one million international and domestic pilgrims will be allowed to perform Hajj.
Each country will be allocated a quota of pilgrims allowed to enter the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As per the quota, Bangladesh will send 57,585 pilgrims, the fourth-largest number of pilgrims to perform Hajj this year.
Indonesia has the highest number of Hajj pilgrims with a quota of 100,051 while Pakistan has the second largest number with 81,132 pilgrims and India came third with 79,237 pilgrims.
Only 4,000 pilgrims – about 7 percent - will be sent under the government management and 53,585 pilgrims– about 93 percent - will go under the private management while India will send 56,601 pilgrims – about 71 percent - under the government management as per the provision of Haj Policy 2018-22.
As per the policy recommendations, the pilgrim quota for government should be 70 percent and 30 percent should be allocated under private tour operators (PTOs) and India has the refund policy that pilgrims get back the excessive money after all expenses.
Pakistan will send 40 percent pilgrims that are 32,453 of the total quota under the government scheme and 48,679 (60 percent) will go under PTOs, according to the press note issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony on April 29.
Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) President M Shahadat Hossain Taslim told The Business Post, “It is grim true that our expenditure is quite more than that of India and Pakistan. India gives subsidy and it has around Tk 40 thousand less air fare than that of ours. Proximity between Pakistan and Mecca does reduce the air fare of that country.”
“On the other hand, we provide more facilities than India and Pakistan do. We keep the Hajj pilgrims nearby Mecca while India, Malaysia and Indonesia keep their pilgrims far away that creates huge differences,” he added.
He said, “A pilgrim has to read the entire document properly so that he gets desired services from the Hajj operators. We urged for the curtailed air fare but we have had no response yet.”
Meanwhile, Tamboli Shoukat Ibrahim, Chairman of All India Haj Umrah Tour Organisers Association (AIHUTOA) told this correspondent, “There is no subsidy from the government and we follow the expenditure based on the KGA’s guideline and the recommendations of the pilgrims as they want to stay nearby Haram Sharif and their desired hotel, car and service facilities.”
This year 452 Hajj organisers will send pilgrims to Mecca while 725 organisers sent pilgrims in 2019, he added. This correspondent tried to reach the representative of Hajj Organizers Association of Pakistan (HOAP) and Pakistani journalist to know the actual scenario of Pakistan.
BRAC Migration Programme Head Shariful Hasan said, “Our Hajj cost is much more than any other countries across the world and the service quality is very low.”
“Syndication, propensity for money earning by holding pilgrims hostage, workers and migrants and excess profit tendency even out of Hajj issue have increased the expenditure of Hajj and migration cost,” he said.
He pointed, “Once a license is abolished due to irregularities the owner takes another license in the name of his wife or relatives and sometime an owner gets different licenses including recruitment, tour operating and Hajj. We need to provide license against NID so that alleged operators cannot operate any illegal business.
Md. Matiul Islam, Additional Secretary of Haj Wing under Bangladesh Ministry of Religious Affairs said, “We want to reduce hajj cost at bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabis. We met the Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh and urged to cut the excessive vat and cost.”
“If we get positive response we will curtail the cost. Due to lack of resource we cannot send more pilgrims like India and Pakistan but we try to monitor and regulatethe private agencies so that the pilgrims can get more facilities at lower cost. HAAB and our agencies promised to ensure their duties in a proper way.”
Also Read: Pilgrims can carry $1,200 sans Hajj expenses
According to the General Authority for Statistics of the KGA, the Kingdom saw more than 19 million pilgrims for Umrah and 2.5 million for Hajj in 2019. Combined, they contributed approximately $12 billion or 7 percent of the total GDP and 20 percent of its non-oil GDP.
Up to 30% of the private sector income in Mecca and Medina is derived from the pilgrimages, according to the Mecca Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In increasing the numbers with only a few thousand local pilgrims over the past two years due to pandemic induced restrictions, the kingdom’s Ministry said the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, would only be permitted for people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and are under the age of 65.
