Total benefit of hajj fund management for the pilgrims is still low

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Deputy Chairman of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives Iskan Qolba Lubis said hajj fund management should be transparent as it potency was big. It was aimed at mininalizing mistakes in financial management and to increase the benefit for the pilgrims. "The big potency should be given to the pilgrims to increase the hajj facilities," said him on Tuesday (March 21).

Iskan said the financial potency was not inline with the benefit given to the pilgrims. For example, there were pilgrims had registered for a very long time, but his margin did not had the same value to the hajj fund management. "There were 80 pilgrims went in 2004. After giving deposit for Rp 20 million, in 13 years later the margin was Rp 24,7 million. It was used to subsidize the upcoming pilgrims, so the total was 2,38 million,” he said.

In contrary, there were 78 pilgrims registered during 2014. They deposited Rp 20 million and would go in 2017. In fact, the shares was only Rp 5,1 million. After subsidizing the upcoming pilgrims, the total was Rp 22,06 million. “As there were something upnormal in the nomination recapitulation of hajj, a revision on the fund management in the future was needed," said him.

Iskan said the total benefit of hajj fund management was only 8 percent per year. There was no additional benefit. "I hope there would be an agency of Hajj Fund Management in the future. The government might optimize the hajj fund and the indirect cost which would reduce the pilgrims' benefit in the future," said the alumnus of al-Azhar University, Cairo.