The 2024 Hajj Increase Fee Of IDR 105 Million Is Not Final, It Must Still Be Agreed By The Ministry Of Religion-DPR Committee

Illustration of pilgrims from Indonesia carrying out worship at the departure of 2022. (ANTARA-Saudi Ministry of Media)

JAKARTA - Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas emphasized that the proposal for the Hajj Implementation Fee (BPIH) submitted during yesterday's working meeting will still be discussed by the Working Committee (Panja) and then agreed and determined how much the 2024 Hajj costs will be.

"The government has indeed proposed a hajj fee. We propose a BPIH of IDR 105 million per congregation. This proposal will be used as material for discussion by the Panja to later agree on how much the 2024 hajj costs will be," said Minister of Religion Yaqut in Jakarta, Tuesday.

Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah stipulates that BPIH is a number of funds used for the operation of organizing the pilgrimage.

Article 44 states that BPIH comes from the Hajj Travel Expenses (Bipih) that must be paid by prospective hajj participants, state revenue and expenditure budgets, benefit values, efficiency funds, and/or other legitimate sources based on the provisions of the legislation.

"So this is still the initial proposal that will be discussed at the Panja. If it has been reviewed and assessed the prices in the field, then agreed, and it was determined how much the pilgrims paid (Bipih) and how much was taken from the value of the benefits of the initial deposit of the congregation," said Minister of Religion Yaqut.

According to the Minister of Religion, there is something different in the proposed 2024 hajj fee scheme with previous years. The government in the DPR RI meeting yesterday only proposed the amount of the BPIH. The government no longer calculates the composition of the amount of Bipiah to be paid by pilgrims and the value of benefits.

"The BPIH proposed by the government will then be discussed in more detail each component by the BPIH Panja. After the BPIH is agreed, it will only be calculated how much the Bipiah paid by the congregation and how much comes from the value of the benefits," said Minister of Religion Yaqut.

In comparison, in the 2023 hajj season, the government proposed a BPIH with an average of IDR 98,893,909.11 per person. After a series of discussions were carried out through the BPIH Committee and a review of prices, in the end it was agreed that the BPIH 2023 would average IDR 90,050,637.26.

Furthermore, it was agreed that the Bipih fee paid by the congregation in 2023 would average Rp49,812,700.26 per person (55.3 percent), while those sourced from the average benefit value of Rp40,237,937 (44.7 percent).