Double Budget For The 2024 Hajj Visa, Chairman Of Commission VIII DPR: Some Should Have Been Arrested

Chairman of Commission VIII DPR RI Marwan Dasopang (DOK: https://emedia.dpr.go.id/)

JAKARTA - Chairman of Commission VIII DPR RI Marwan Dasopang revealed one of the factors in reducing the cost of Hajj 2025, namely that due to the abolition of visa costs. Marwan said, there was a double budget for visa financing in the implementation of the 2024 Hajj so that some parties should have been arrested by law enforcers regarding this issue.

Marwan explained that the 2024 Hajj Special Committee actually found a number of abuses, one of which was related to visa financing. He said the visa costs charged to pilgrims were 300 SAR, but it turned out that the visa costs were also included in the community component.

"So, there is a double budget in visa financing. They (the government) admit it. If it is acknowledged that there is a double budget, someone should have been arrested. Yes, law enforcement officers arrested it," Marwan told reporters, Thursday, January 9.

Marwan said the 2024 Hajj Special Committee had shown evidence of the abuse. Currently, he said, the 2025 Hajj Committee has proven that there has indeed been misuse of the hajj budget by deleting visa fees.

The head of the commission in partnership with the Ministry of Religion said, based on his calculations, the number misappropriated from visa management reached around Rp. 300 billion. With this evidence, the debate in determining the 2025 hajj costs is not too long, because the costs that could potentially be misused can be quickly removed.

"We got these evidences so the debate was not long. So we mentioned it to the government, this. We are very ready with various data. This means that we cannot be deceived anymore," said Marwan.

According to the Legislator for the North Sumatra II electoral district, the discussion of the costs of Hajj in previous years was always complicated, because one of the factors was about visa costs. The government, said Marwan, always reasoned that visa costs had become Saudi Arabia's provisions.

"This could be a note in the next meetings. If the DPR or its committee is very ready with data, then the discussion will take five days. The cost of Hajj can also drop drastically," said Marwan.

Although the 2025 hajj costs have decreased, Marwan said, the government is committed and guarantees that the services of the pilgrims will be better. Commission VIII of the DPR, he said, will certainly carry out strict supervision of the implementation of the 2025 Hajj.

The PKB politician hopes that there will be no misappropriation in organizing the 2025 Hajj as happened in 2024. At that time, Marwan's review, there was an misuse of an additional quota of 4,003 pilgrims or the same as 10 groups. Of that amount, according to him, the value of the money that was misappropriated was very large.

"From the 2024 Hajj incident, we hope that will not happen in 2025. Including yesterday's problem of accommodation and others," concluded Marwan.