The government has decided to reserve the full Hajj quota of the Maldives to the Hajj Corporation in a bid to control the cost of the pilgrimage.
Briefing the press about Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Spokesman Mohamed Shaheed said the cabinet decided not to authorize any other company to take pilgrims to Mecca.
Reducing the cost of performing the Hajj pilgrimage was a campaign pledge of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. During the campaign, he pledged to strengthen the Hajj Corporation and to lower the price paid by the public for the pilgrimage.
“It has to be made a financially strong company by investing from the Hajj fund and earning profits. That way the price of going to Hajj will become lower,” Muizzu said at a campaign rally in Meemu Mulah.
The President said at the time that the cost of the Hajj pilgrimage would be reduced during the first year of his administration. He also pledged to arrange for low-income individuals to pay the Hajj cost in instalments, which is possible now.
Funding the pilgrimage of 1,000 people without the means during his term in office was also a pledge of the President. The government said previously that it was working to send 50 people on the pilgrimage next year.
