New Delhi, Jan 16: The Centre on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of Haj subsidy granted to Muslims who undertake the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. With its abolition, the concession granted to pilgrims on their travelling charges would cease to exist.

What is Haj subsidy?

Introduced in 1994, the subsidy was aimed to reduce the cost burden on Muslims planning to undertake the Haj pilgrimage. The cost incurred by the exchequer in 1994, due to the subsidy, amounted to Rs 10.51 crore. The total number of beneficiaries were 20,135.

Over the years, however, the flight cost as well the number of pilgrims increased, which in turn raised the cost incurred by Centre in an exponential manner.

In 2012, the subsidy amount totalled up to Rs 685 crore, with a total of 1.2 lakh Muslims benefiting. Considering the cost incurred, the Supreme Court had then recommended the government to phase out the subsidy in the next 10 years.

Other key things to know for the Indian Haj pilgrims

The 1.7 lakh Haj pilgrims from India could either perform Haj through the Haj Committee of India (HCoI), or the private tour operators registered with the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

As per the arrangement maintained in 2012, the pilgrim quota for HCoI was fixed at 1,36,020, whereas, a total of 45,000 pilgrims were allowed to undertake the Haj through private tour operators.

Between 2013-2017, the quota of Indian Haj pilgrims was brought down by the Saudi government to 1.2 lakh, owing to the repair work which was going on at the grand mosque.

The numbers has once again been increased to 1.7 lakh pilgrims for the year 2018.

All arrangements for the HCoI pilgrims in Saudi Arabia will be coordinated by the Consulate General of India, Jeddah.

The online applications for Haj pilgrimage were invited by HCoI between November 15, 2017 to December 2017.

For those who have missed the deadline, they could undertake the Haj pilgrimage by approaching the private tour operators. However, the latter is comparatively a costlier option.

The applications made before the HCoI are selected based upon the lottery system.

The mandatory requirements for those applying through the HCoI include: Valid international passport, which was issued before the date of November 15, 2017 and will not expire before February 18, 2019; proof of address (if different from what is mentioned on the passport); bank pay-in-slip (original), copy of cancelled cheque, and a solemn declaration.

For women below the age of 45, the name of mehram or the male guardian travelling along her should be mentioned in the declaration form.

In accordance with the rules amended by the Saudi regime, the government of India has allowed women above the age of 45 years to travel for Haj without a mehram. However, the woman should be travelling in a group whose strength is not less than four.

Another major development came in the past week, when the Saudi government approved India's proposal to ferry Haj pilgrims to Jeddah via the sea route. The move will significantly bring down the travelling charges, claimed the Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 16, 2018 06:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).