196,377 Indonesian Pilgrims Paid Hajj Fees to depart this year. There are still 6,943 congregations have not

Baca Gitu Loh - Jakarta, Indonesia - The extension of the payment of Hajj Travel Expenses (Bipih) 1444 H for regular pilgrims is closed today. The Director General of Hajj and Umrah Management Hilman Latief said that 96.5% of pilgrims who are entitled to pay Bipih have already made payments.

The quota for Indonesian regular haj pilgrims this year reaches 203,320 people. Bipih redemption was opened from April 11 to May 5 2023, then extended to today.

"Our data shows that there are 196,377 regular pilgrims who have paid off. In terms of percentage, the figure has reached 96.5%," explained Hilman Latief in Jakarta, Friday (12/5/2023).

"There are still 6,943 congregations who have not paid off. Currently we are still discussing whether to extend the payment again with the same list of congregations or open a second phase with new criteria. We will inform you as soon as it has been decided. It is likely that the payment period will be extended, " he continued.

Of the remaining quota, Hilman noted that there were still 176 Regional Hajj Officers (PHD) and 253 KBIHU Advisors (Hajj and Umrah Guidance Group) who had not paid off.

"Since 2016, the average repayment has been made in two stages. Except for 2022, there will only be one stage because the quota is only around 100 thousand," said Hilman.

Hilman admitted that he was still trying to optimize the quota for Indonesian pilgrims. He admitted that the error in the banking system at Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) for up to four days had an impact on the progress of the settlement. Moreover, the majority of regular pilgrims are BSI customers.

"I hope there will be no more technical problems such as banking system errors. As a result of the error system, the congregation is constrained in paying off. They are worried that they will not be able to pay off and fail to leave, especially since the system error took quite a long time. There should be a tactical solution so they can deal with an emergency like this," he said.

Hilman added, in terms of percentage, Bangka Belitung occupies the first position with the largest number of pilgrims who pay off (96.5%).

Of the 999 congregations, 963 people have paid off. Following in the next sequence, West Papua 95.7% (679/650), West Sulawesi 95.3% (1,363/1,300), North Maluku 95% (1,013/963), and South Sulawesi 95% (6,826/6,495).

For West Java Province, there were 32,724 pilgrims who paid off (90% of 36,361). A total of 26,093 pilgrims from Central Java have also paid off (91.5% of 28,494).

In East Java, out of 33,035 congregations, 28,319 people (85.7%) have paid off. Meanwhile for Banten, there are 8,162 pilgrims who have paid off (91.8% of 8,884) ***

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