As of last month, 3,750 people were waiting in line for Hajj through the Hajj Corporation, and the corporation reported that more than MVR 235 million had been paid for the time period.
The Hajj Corporation states that 3,750 persons were waiting in line for the Hajj up until September 30 of this year, and the total of their payments was at MVR 235,796,346.01.
The government owned Hajj Corporation currently charges MVR 69,965 per person for the pilgrimage, with at least 75 percent of the total fee to paid in order to queue. The minimum amount to that has to be pad is MVR 52,500 to queue. Which means that not everyone in the queue has paid in full.
When asked to specify how much of the applicants' money was given to the Hajj Corporation at the time, the corporation responded that it was commercially sensitive information and declined to provide the information in accordance with the Right to Information Act. Additionally, since it is a trade secret, the average expense of traveling for the Hajj pilgrimage was kept a secret.
However, according to the company's 2020 annual report available on Hajj Corporation's website, as of December 31, 2020, the total amount of advance payments made by customers amounted to MVR 151،350،543. Additionally, the business reported a loss of MVR 1.6 million in 2020 and a loss of MVR 12.2 million in 2019.
The Hajj pilgrimage was also disrupted due to the Covid-19 outbreak which has lead to Saudi Arabia reducing its Hajj quotas. Earlier, thousands of quotas were given to Maldives but this time only 453 places were given to the country. Due to quota restrictions, the Hajj queue has been lengthy. The Hajj Corporation had previously stated that, given the chance, the line would be cleared in three years.
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