Malaysia's haj quota unchanged, no cost increase for 2025, Dewan Rakyat told

New Straits Times

2 days ago

KUALA LUMPUR: No additional haj quota was granted by the Saudi government to any country, including Malaysia, for this year's pilgrimage season, the Dewan Rakyat heard today.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar said the additional quota had only been provided to Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) during the previous year and had been fully utilised, including by authorised haj organisers.
Na'im also said that no Malaysian official haj quota has gone unused from 2020 up to this year.
"The official annual haj quota allocated by the Saudi government to Malaysia is 31,600 pilgrims.
"This is based on the decision by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which sets the quota at 0.1 per cent of a country's Muslim population.
"Meanwhile, there is no increase in haj costs for the year 2025, with the amount remaining the same as the previous year at RM33,300," he said during the question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Na'im said this in response to Datuk Dr Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (PN-Pengkalan Chepa), who enquired on the justification for the increase in haj costs for 2025, the status of TH investments, and the number of unused haj quotas allocated to Malaysia from 2020 to 2025.
Commenting further, Na'im said TH's 3.25 per cent profit distribution for the 2024 financial year, the highest in the past seven years, was due to pilgrims voluntarily rejecting haj financial aid.
He added that 263 pilgrims declined the haj subsidy last year, while 396 rejected it in 2023.
"As a result, we received a relatively higher dividend for last year, due to both the returns on investment and the savings from the rejected haj subsidies," he said.
Na'im added that the government is also exploring a proposal to place matters relating to umrah under the jurisdiction of TH instead of the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) to curb fraudulent agents offering fake umrah packages, though he does not view it as a major issue.
He said this in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik (PH-Balik Pulau) regarding the need to curb fraudulent agents offering fake haj packages, which recently led to 47 pilgrims being stranded.
Na'im also said the government has established a special committee involving the police, TH and Motac, aimed at preventing any individual or company from arranging haj trips without proper permits.
"As for the question of whether umrah falls under the jurisdiction of Motac or TH, I do not see it as an issue.
"While we are discussing the best way forward, including the possibility of placing umrah under TH, that is something we can explore further in discussions with Motac, but what is more pressing is the awareness of the public.
"If we receive credible information, we can act to stop such attempts. However, in the case of the 47 stranded pilgrims, we were unable to stop them because they were travelling to other countries.
"That group appeared to be on holiday to countries like Turkiye or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and from there, proceeded to Makkah to perform the haj," he said.