News: The Central Government on 16 January, 2018, scrapped the Haj Subsidy, given by the successive governments to Hajji in the form of airfare and logistics costs. The central government’s decision is in the line with Honorable Supreme Court’s May 2012 judgment. Funds saved will be used for the education of minorities, particularly girl children.
Supreme Court Judgment: The Supreme Court Bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and Aftab Alam, On May 8, 2012 quoiting the Quran, justified the discontinuation of Haj subsidy and suggested in no uncertain terms that 10 years would be the upper limit for the continuation of the Rs 685 crore (in 2011) Haj subsidy. The apex court gave 8 May, 2022 deadline for discontinuation of Haj subsidy. The Bench opined that the subsidy money may be more profitably used for upliftment of the community in education and other indices of social development.
Afzal Amanullah Committee: The Afzal Amanullah Committee in its October 2017 report has endorsed the phasing out of Haj subsidy.
Logic of Haj Subsidy: The history of Haj subsidy goes back to British colonial givernment which was expanded by Haj act 1959. The then UPA government had argued in court that higher fares were charged by the airlines during the Haj period due to regulations imposed by the Saudi Arabian authorities. According to the former UPA government, ‘the norm is that the airline should carry pilgrims to Jeddah and return with zero load… This forces airlines to increase the fares, which otherwise come to around Rs 25,000. Therefore, the government thought it fit to collect a reasonable fare from the pilgrim and the additional fare charged because of the Haj-specific logistics is paid by the government to the airline. The government also decided not to pass on… the additional amount charged by the airline, purely on logistics, to the pilgrims. During the Haj of 2011, each pilgrim was charged Rs 16,000 towards airfare and the additional amount of Rs 38,000 per Haji is what is termed “subsidy’. The subsidy is given only to those pilgrims who go through the Haj Committee of India,” the government told the court.
Current Haj quota: Every year, pilgrims go for Haj according to the quota fixed for particular countries by the Saudi Arabian government. For India, the quota currently stands at 1,75,000 people , which was recently increased.
View: We can not call it a big reform, but certainly, it is good process to end politics of appeasement followed by different political parties.
