Ministry Of Religion Will Not Use Hajj Funds For Handling COVID-19

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) has confirmed that it will not use the funds of Indonesian pilgrims to help deal with the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This was confirmed by the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Religion, Oman Fathurahman.

Oman said, from the beginning the Ministry of Religion had never planned to disburse Hajj funds to deal with the corona virus. The discourse actually originated from the proposal of Commission VIII DPR RI during a joint work meeting with the Ministry of Religion on April 8.

"Responding to the development of this discourse, I make sure that none of the funds for the pilgrims will be used for the prevention of COVID-19," Oman said in a written statement, Monday, April 13.

Oman explained, Article 44 of Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah provides that the cost of organizing the Hajj (BPIH) comes from the cost of the pilgrimage trip (Bipih), the value of benefits, efficiency funds, and / or other legitimate sources. based on statutory provisions. This fee should not be tampered with for other activities because it is entirely only used for the services of the pilgrims.

Then, there is another BPIH that comes from the APBN. This fee is used for operational officers in serving the pilgrims. The funds sourced from the state budget are used for accommodation and consumption for pilgrims officials.

In addition, the APBN funds are also used for ground transportation costs for officers while in Saudi Arabia, as well as air transportation for pilgrims from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia and vice versa.

Oman said, if the hajj was canceled this year, only BPIH from the state budget could be reallocated to support efforts to deal with the spread of COVID-19.

"Meanwhile, for BPIH sourced from Bipih, the value of benefits and efficiency funds will be returned to the hajj treasury in BPKH for the implementation of Hajj operations in the coming years," he said.

Furthermore, until now the government of Saudi Arabia has not provided an official statement regarding the continuation of the 2020 Hajj pilgrimage (PIH). Therefore, the government is still preparing the 2020 PIH from the State Budget of IDR 486 billion.