The Ministry of Religious Affairs on Wednesday extended the deadline for registration till February 1 due to poor response in Hajj registration.
The deadline was extended following a special request by the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) and intended Hajj pilgrims, the religious ministry said in a release.
During this period, prospective pilgrims can either start their Hajj registration with a deposit of over Tk2 lakh at the bank or complete it by paying the total hajj package cost. Following the initial registration, the balance of the Hajj package price must be paid at the same bank by February 29 to finalize the registration.
Otherwise, Hajj cannot be performed and money paid at the time of initial registration will not be refunded.
Earlier, the last date of registration for hajj ended on January 18 keeping around 79,000 hajj quotas remain unfulfilled.
The hajj registration started on November 15 and continued till December 10. The ministry later extended the deadline until December 31.
Despite a very poor response, the ministry later extended the time until January 18.
According to the ministry, only 47,772 hajj aspirants have completed their hajj registration against the total quota of 127,298 meaning that around 79,000 hajj quotas remain unfulfilled.
According to the agreement between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, a total of 127,298 Bangladeshis got the opportunity to perform hajj this year.
Leaders of HAAB said despite huge interest, people are not completing hajj registration due to the high cost of hajj packages this year.
This year, two Hajj packages have been fixed under government management, with the lowest package priced at Tk5,78,840 and the special package at Tk9,36,320.
Meanwhile, the two packages under private management are priced at Tk5,89,800 and Tk8,28,818, respectively.
Compared to last year, the cost of the lowest package has seen a reduction of Tk1,04,160.
However, despite this reduction, the response has been notably lower than in the previous year, echoing a trend observed in 2023 when 3,500 registrations remained vacant against the quota.
This year, hajj will be held on June 16 depending on the sighting of the moon.
