More pilgrims expected from Qatar: Haj Minister

Fee for canceling Haj plan

The Ministry of Haj and Umrah has warned domestic pilgrims who cancel their Haj plans after registering with the local Haj companies that they will have to pay certain fees.

The ministry said the cancellation should be done before the Haj permit is printed. It said it will start receiving the cancellations of the domestic pilgrims from Sunday on its e-portal.

The ministry said if the cancellation was done after printing of the Haj permit, the pilgrim should log on to Absher to make sure that the cancellation was done and then log on to the e-portal to complete the cancellation procedures.

The cancellation will be free of charge if it was done before the Haj fees were paid.

According to the ministry, every domestic pilgrim who cancels his/her Haj plans after the permit has been printed will have to pay SR68.25 in cancellation fee, in addition to SR7.35 toward bank transfer charges.

If the cancellation was to the refusal of the Ministry of Interior to issue a Haj Permit, then SR26.25 will be deducted per pilgrim with the addition of SR7.35 as bank transfer fee.

However, for late cancellations after Dhul Hijja 1, the fee will go up with the pilgrim forfeiting the full amount of the contract value after Dhul Hijja 6. The fee will be 30 percent of the contract value on Dhul Hijja 2 and it will increase by 10 percent on each subsequent day.

Meanwhile, the domestic pilgrims companies and establishments have started preparing some 800 camps in Arafat.

The spokesman of the Coordination Council for Domestic Haj Companies Muhammad Al-Qurashi said the cost of these camps totals nearly SR50 million. He said the preparations in Mina and Arafat holy sites will be completed before Dhul Hijja 1, 1439H.