Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin will review the rules on umrah package as he did not want to see another case of umrah scam carried out by travel agencies like First Travel happening in the future.
"So that people would not become an object of fraud, since generally most people wantthe most affordable [umrah packages]," said Lukman at the Parliament Building, Jakarta, Friday.
According to him, the ministry wantsprevent the emergence of umrah travel agencies that lure public with the too-good-to-be-true low-cost packages, possibly by setting a minimum price of an umrah trip.
"In order for not spending too much money, umrah travel agencies set the price as economical as possible, but thispotentially could be disadvantageous to potential pilgrims," Lukman continued.
"We're studying whether to set a minimum price for umrah. It's still in the middle of the discussion. It's stillbeing studied, the amount, what is the benefit, what is the downside. Its plus and minus are still under a research."
As for now,the ministry can only grant permits for agencies and does notregulate further about those agencies' packages.
"The government does not organize umrah. We only grant a permission to travel agencies and revoke it if the agency happens to commit a violation," he continued.
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