At a time when Muslims are more enthusiastic to spend the holy month of Ramadan in the holy city of Mecca, many pilgrims are forced to reconsider their Umrah plans as many travel agents put a damper on those. As it turns out, these travel agents have steeply increased visa endorsement charges to travel to the Saudi Arabia.
According to Syed Shahid Ali who was planning to proceed for the pilgrimage many Umrah travel agents are charging as high as Rs30,000 per endorsement, where as a Saudi Government charges around 120 Saudi Riyals, which is around Rs3,000.A travel agent of the city Rizwan Ahmed said, “The steep hike is not on account of the Government but by some of the counterparts in the Saudi Arabian Kingdom with whom the local agents have a tie-up. These partner agents are hiking endorsement fee which is affecting the Umrah pilgrim.”
He said that each of the travel agents has to partner with those in Saudi Arabia. A deposit of around 2 lakh Saudi Riyals, around Rs36 lakh, is paid and only then can work proceed.“There are only a handful of agents who are directly authorized to deal with the Umrah visas. The rest are sub-agents of these agents. They too have been hiking their shares,” said another travel agent who did not wish to be identified. Basic Umrah packages which combine, visa endorsement charges, airfare and accommodation easily reach Rs1.5 lakh.
Ahmed said the endorsement charges are up to Rs35,000 and the airfare is around Rs35,000. Charges for accommodation vary according to the hotel. This is leading many people to consider going for Haj instead.Ali said that the high cost has though not affected me but some of my family friends who were also planning to proceed for the pilgrimage have backed up due to high cost.