RASHIDUL HASAN

A Bangladeshi pilgrim will have to spend Tk 6.83 lakh to perform hajj this year under government management, up by around Tk 1.61 lakh on the previous year.

Hajj under private management will cost a pilgrim a minimum of Tk 6.57 lakh this year, around Tk 1.36 lakh more than in 2022.

This was decided in a meeting of the executive committee on hajj management at the secretariat yesterday, with State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Faridul Haque Khan in the chair.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the state minister said the government announced two hajj packages of Tk 5,86,340 and Tk 5,21,150 last year, but the number of packages has come down to one this year.

The Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab), a platform of private hajj tour operators, would formally declare its hajj package rates at a press conference at a city hotel today, Haab President M Shahadat Hossain Taslim, told The Daily Star.

He said the private agencies will fix their package rates in conformity with those of the government’s.