Staff Correspondent

The deadline for Hajj registration under government and private management has been extended for another five days until March 21, amid poor response from aspirant pilgrims due to high price of Hajj package.

While extending the deadline last time, the Ministry of Religious Affairs said it was the last time the government extended the deadline.

But, the ministry, in a notification issued on Thursday, said the deadline has been extended in the face of special request from aspirant pilgrims and the deadline will not be extended again.

According to the notification, once the quota is filled, the registration server will automatically shut down.

It also informs that if the registration is not confirmed by depositing the money in the bank within two working days after the preparation of the registration voucher, the voucher will be cancelled automatically.

The ministry has requested that all the banks conducting Hajj activities keep their branches open until the payment of the vouchers is prepared after office hours by March 21.

The Saudi government has introduced a biometric visa system for Hajj this year.

All necessary preparations are being made by the Ministry of Religious Affairs for the submission of visa applications under this procedure.

In order to apply for a visa in this new system, the passport must be kept with oneself.
However, those who have already submitted their passports to the Hajj office in Ashkona by registering with the government can go there when the visa process starts and apply for a biometric visa, or they can apply for a visa from any other centre with the passport from there.

All concerned will be informed about the visa submission centre and procedures once the visa process starts.

As per the agreement signed between the governments of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia on January 9, a total of 1,27,198 people from Bangladesh will be able to perform hajj this year.

But only 1,10,822 people have finally registered for Hajj till 8 pm on Thursday. So far the quota of 16,376 pilgrims has remained vacant. Among them, there are still 5,317 vacancies under the government management, while quota for 11,059 people is still left to register under private management.

In 2023, some 2,49,224 people who wanted to go to Hajj had completed their pre-registration. Among them, 8,391 people pre-registered under government management, while the number was 2,40,833 under private management.

A Bangladeshi will have to spend at least Tk 6.83 lakh to perform hajj under government management this year, around 2.21 lakh more than the last year. The minimum cost for performing hajj under private management has been fixed at Tk 6.72 lakh this year, about Tk 1.5 lakh more than that of the previous year.

Apart from this, each pilgrim will have to pay about Tk 22,000 for a Qurbani (sacrificing animals) coupon from the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia.

The 2023 edition of Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, will be held on the 9th day of Zillhajj or June 27, depending on the moon sighting.