Ibrahim Khudair and Samir Al-Thibaiti Okaz/Saudi Gazette
MAKKAH — Domestic pilgrims have been forced high charges as the Tawafa establishments have artificially hiked the rates, a senior official has said. Hatim Qadi, undersecretary and official spokesman of the Ministry of Haj, said efforts to bring down the charges were under way. Prince Ahmed Bin Abdul Aziz, Interior Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee, has ordered the establishment of a committee comprising representatives from the Haj Ministry and other concerned government departments to lay down mechanism to control the charges, he said. The spokesman said the ministry had asked all heads of domestic Haj campaigns to supply the ministry with detailed Haj programs at reasonable charges. According to the spokesman, domestic Haj campaigns cost on average between SR1,900 and SR3,700 but said some Haj service providers increased their rates and claimed they would be providing top services to their pilgrims. Many domestic pilgrims shelved the pilgrimage plan this year because of these high charges, he said. A number of low-income citizens complained that they would not be performing the fifth pillar of Islam this year because of the high costs. They said less costly campaigns, which were being subsidized by the Haj Ministry, were unable to accommodate the large number of citizens wishing to perform the pilgrimage. Sulaiman Al-Zahrani, who wanted to go for Haj this year, said: “I tried to perform the Haj this year but couldn't afford the high costs due to my low income.” He said he tried to join a local Haj campaign only to discover that the charges were higher than last year. He said: “In a single day the cheap Haj campaign filled up its quota of local pilgrims and would not accept anymore.” He added the number of campaigns at reasonable prices was very little. Majed Al-Harbi, another citizen, said he tried to join a domestic Haj campaign more than two months ago, only to discover those offering the cheapest Category D tours had stopped accepting any more applications after their charges reached more than SR8,000. He added the charges of A-category campaigns had reached more than SR16,000 per head. “Some of the domestic campaigns lowered their charges because of the bad services they were offering. These campaigns would house hundreds of pilgrims in a single tent far away from the Jamarat area,” he said. Fahd Al-Otaibi, another Saudi citizen, said he and his four sons looked for a reasonable campaign only to discover that the cheapest would cost SR15,000 per person. He added: “This will cost me in total SR75,000, which is half my annual income.” Al-Otaibi asked concerned officials to find a quick solution to the problem to enable Saudis and expatriates perform Haj. Lack of supervision of the charges has caused this problem, he said. Saad Jameel Al-Qurashi, Chairman of the National Haj Transport Committee and incharge of domestic Haj campaigns, said charges went up because of the high prices of air tickets, services and salaries of foreign workers working in the holy sites. As long as there was demand for domestic Haj campaigns, their charges would remain high, Al-Qurashi said.
