Ministry of Islamic Affairs decides not to take additional fees from pilgrims

Ministry of Islamic Affairs has decided not to take any additional fee from the pilgrims this year even though the exchange rate of dollars has been raised by the government.

To over come any difficulties that this change in the US Dollar exchange rate might have caused the Hajj and Umrah groups, the Ministry arranged some formalities with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help reduce these difficulties and operating costs.

The Ministry said that they have arranged to repay the guarantee to the groups and arranged the Hajj procedure to be carried out without the use of US Dollars.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs also said that the groups can deposit Maldivian Ruffiya to Maldivian Islamic Bank and withdraw Saudi Riyals from Jeddah Islamic Bank as per the deposit.

Moreover, Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari yesterday said that more than 1000 Maldivians will be leaving to Hajj, which will cost more than 1 million US Dollars. He said that the Ministry’s arrangements will save this large amount of Dollars without it getting out of the country. He said that these measures will help the current US Dollar shortage.

Meanwhile, the Ministry also earlier arranged the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia agreed to facilitate the issuing of Hajj Visa in the Maldives. Previously Hajj visa was issued to Maldivian pilgrims at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Sri Lanka. The Ministry said that this has caused some difficulty and the new system to issue the visa in Maldives itself will help reduce these difficulties and operating costs.