Religious Affairs Adviser Dr A F M Khalid Hossain on Wednesday said the government is keen to protect the best interests of the pilgrims and is working to fix airfare rationally.
“Last year, airfares were reduced by nearly Tk 27,000 and efforts are underway to ensure a rational airfare this year too,” he said while addressing a workshop at the Dhaka Hajj Office in Ashkona in the morning.
It is not possible for the government to reduce as costs of Hajj despite strong demand from people, said the adviser.
“We cannot reduce the costs set by the government of Saudi Arabia. We can only negotiate a bit on the airfare and accommodation costs,” he said.
Noting that the government has no commercial interest in Hajj management, Adviser Khalid said that the government does not profit from Hajj and unspent funds from government-managed Hajj packages are returned to the pilgrims.
This year Tk 8.28 crore was refunded to pilgrims who performed Hajj through the government channel, he said.
Khalid said the higher number of pilgrims go through the government management, the easier and safer the management of Hajj will be.
A significant number of government-managed pilgrims will enable the government to provide better services, he added.