GOI Ends 85-Year-Old Hajj Subsidy

New Delhi—The government of India Minister of Minority Affairs on Tuesday announced the scrapping of 85-year-old Haj subsidy from this year.

The subsidy is a means of financial support that the Centre grants to Indian Haj pilgrims in the form of discounted air fares on Indian Government owned carriers.

Naqvi said that despite the subsidy withdrawal, a record number of 1.75 lakh Muslims will undertake the pilgrimage from India this year.

Naqvi also said that the Saudi Arabian government has in principle agreed to allow Haj journey from India by ships and officials of the two countries will sit together to finalise the modalities.

“This is part of our policy to empower minorities with dignity and without appeasement,” Naqvi told reporters and cited a host of measures for the welfare of minorities.

“Muslims didn’t benefit from it. Development with dignity is what we believe in. The subsidy will be used for educating girls,” Naqvi further said.

Earlier this year, Naqvi had said that the Centre would abolish the subsidy for Haj pilgrims in accordance with a Supreme Court order.

“A constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had, during the Congress regime in 2012, directed that the Haj subsidy be done away with. Hence, in the new policy, as per the recommendations of a committee, we have decided to do away with the Haj subsidy gradually,” he had said.

The Haj subsidy was first introduced in 1932 when the British government provided for a government funded Haj committee and named Bombay and Calcutta as two ports from where Muslims could embark upon their pilgrimage. The Haj Committees Act along with the Muslim Personal Law were enacted by the government to fulfill Muslim demands in the pre-Partition days. Post independence, in 1959 the government replaced the previous Act. According to the new Act, a committee was created in Bombay to take care of all affairs of the pilgrims, including travel arrangements during the pilgrimage and to cover overhead expenses.

The Committee Act was further modified in 1973 when the mode of travel to Saudi Arabia was changed from sea to air, owing to rising oil prices. Accordingly, the government also increased subsidy to cover the difference between sea and air fares. Till 1995, about 5,000 pilgrims used to travel by sea, while around 19,000 used to travel by air each year. However, in 1995 sea travel was completely discarded and all pilgrims had to use air transport.

What is the Haj subsidy?

The Haj subsidy refers to discounted airfares given by the government-owned airlines, Air India. It also includes assistance to Muslim pilgrims for domestic travel to reach specially designed Haj departure airport terminals, lodging, medical care and meal. Originally, the subsidy was given on air fares of flights between Bombay and Jeddah. Later, additional flight legs were added to the subsidy list. Since 1984, all the traffic for Haj from India to Saudi Arabia has been shared between Air India and Saudi, both of which are the government funded carriers of their respective countries.

The amount charged from each pilgrim after the subsidy varies depending on the category of accommodation and airport charges from the point of embarkation. After the 2012 Supreme Court order to phase out the subsidy in the next ten years, the government had been steadily declining the amount of subsidy offered to Haj pilgrims each year. In 2014, the subsidised air fare charged for Haj, per pilgrim was Rs. 35,000, while the actual amount was anything between Rs. 63,750 and Rs. 1,64,350 depending on the point of boarding. By 2016, the amount paid by each pilgrim had risen to Rs. 45,000. In 2017, the Haj subsidy was cut down by almost 50 per cent of the expected cost.

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