Ministry Of Religion Says BPIH For Hajj Officer Operations Needs To Be Regulated In The Hajj Bill

Director General of Hajj and Umrah Implementation Hilman Latief . (ANTARA/HO-Kemenag)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) views that the use of funds for the Implementation of Hajj (BPIH) for the operations of Hajj officers needs to be regulated in the revision of Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah.

"An additional clause is needed for the revision of the Hajj Law which allows the use of BPIH funds to support the operation of Hajj officers," said Director General (Dirjen) of the Ministry of Religion's Hajj and Umrah (PHU), Hilman Latief in a Hearing Meeting (RDP) of the Working Committee (Panja) on the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah Commission VIII DPR RI in Jakarta, Thursday 20 February

According to Hilman, this needs to be regulated while still prioritizing effective, efficient, and economic principles. The proposal arises, because so far funding from the APBN is often not flexible enough in meeting the need for data collection on the implementation of the pilgrimage.

This problem is one of the obstacles experienced by the Ministry of Religion, especially the Directorate General of PHU, in preparing a budget plan from the APBN related to the implementation of the pilgrimage.

In addition to the flexibility problem in the use of the APBN, Hilman said that other obstacles experienced by his party were related to the budget for organizing the pilgrimage, which had not yet been provided with a special program. Thus, he said, the budget did not experience a significant increase.

Then, there are obstacles related to the absence of clear separation of BPIH components sourced from the APBN, Hajj Travel Fees (Bipih), benefit values, efficiency, and other legitimate sources.

Hilman revealed that another obstacle faced by his party was the new policy from the Government of Saudi Arabia which must be implemented immediately.

"The policy in question applies to all parties, not only pilgrims, even for Hajj officers," he said.

In line with these various obstacles, Hilman asked Commission VIII of the DPR RI to consider so that proposals from the Ministry of Religion in overcoming these problems can be included in the revision of the Hajj Law.