Bangladesh State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Haque Khan said that the government had to increase the Hajj package fees due to higher price of the US dollar and Saudi Riyal.
“We haven’t increased any cost of Hajj management from our side. We have to increase the expenditure due to higher price of SR and US Dollars. The price of SR was only Tk21 in 2022 while it’s now Tk29 per SR,” he said while addressing a seminar titled “Hajj Packages 2023 and Management” organized by Religious Reporters’ Forum (RRF] in Dhaka at a city hotel on Sunday (April 2).
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“We could lessen the cost by sending our pilgrims under ‘D’ category packages. But the pilgrims would not be satisfied with the services offered under that category,” said the minister.
In his speech, Faridul Haque Khan admitted about the sufferings of the #pilgrims over the higher fees and assured that he would talk to the prime minister for setting up a fairer and more transparent procedure in time for next year’s pilgrimage, so that Hajj fees and plane fares can be fixed in a logical manner.
Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of HAAB, the association of Hajj agencies, called on the prime minister to reconsider the Hajj package fees set for Bangladeshi pilgrims and deduct the higher costs from the packages to ease the pain of the pilgrims.
RRF President Ubaidullah Badol presided over the seminar while #Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) President M Shahadat Hossain Taslim, Secretary General Faruk Ahmed Sarder and RRF’s founding General Secretary Faiz Ullah Bhuiyan spoke among others.
Earlier on April 1, the government announced the Hajj package fee under government management this year would be Tk6.83 lakh – an unprecedented 30% jump from last year.
SOURCE: risinggbd
