NA committee rejects increase in Haj expenses

ISLAMABAD; The members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Relgious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony on Wednesday rejected increase in Haj expenses, saying that the government should receive no tax from pilgrims, and the huge rise like 56pc in the Haj expenditure was not acceptable.

The meeting, however, commended E-Visa and road to Makkah policies are commendable. The media which previously was given informaton about the meeting was not allowed to cover proceedings of the meeting which held in camera.

The officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony informed that the cost of Haj 2019 is Rs436,975 for Northern airports and Rs426,975 for Southern airports, whereas, it was Rs280,000 and 270,000 for Haj 2018, respectively.

The committee appreciated the Haj arrangements of the previous years and directed that at least previous arrangements should continue. The committee observed that the matter of subsidy was referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology which decided that as per Islamic teachings, the subsidy was permissible. But the government did not allow the subsidy. The committee directed that the government should restore the subsidy or receive no tax from the Pilgrims.

The ministry, trying to justify increase in Haj expenses, informed the parliamentarians that the rise in the Haj cost is due to elimination of the subsidy, which was Rs42,624. The ministry informed that the government did not like to spend the tax money of 220 million Pakistani people on 0.107million pilgrims without the will of the general public.

The officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony explained that some of the increase was beyond their control. For example, devaluation of Rupee and imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) by the Saudi Government has increased the nominal cost of Haj, which was beyond their control.

The ministry informed that in terms of Riyal, the travel cost of Haj has been decreased. The committee observed that subsidy was only 10% of the total Haj expenditures, whereas, the Haj expenditure has been increased by 56%. Similarly, the airfare has been increased by 16% for Northern airports and 17% for Southern airports and the cost of Haj, other than airfare, has increased by about 74%. In this regard if 10 percentage points subsidy is excluded, even than the rise in this expenditure is 64%.

The meeting was presided over by the Chairman, Standing Committee of National Assembly on Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony, Asad Mehmood, who belongs to the JUI-F and attended by National Assembly members Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Prince Muhammad Nawaz Allai, Mujahid Ali, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Raja Riaz Ahmad, Aftab Jehangir, Jamshed Thomas, Ms Shunila Ruth, Chaudhary Faqir Ahmed, Begum Tahira Bokhari, Keeso Mal Kheal Das, Mahar Irshad Ahmad Khan, Ms ShahidaAkhtar Ali and Noorul Haq Qadri, Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony.