ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Monday approved the Haj Package 2023 with an increase of 56pc in cost, while around 89,605 Haj seats will be pitched for a sponsorship scheme that may help to shave off $445 million in foreign exchange requirement for the exercise.

The ECC meeting, which was presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, also approved a supplementary grant of Rs12 billion for the seventh national census, which is currently in progress.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, in its summary, told the ECC that as per annual the Haj agreement signed with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan has been allocated quota of 179,210 seats. Under the latest Haj policy, this quota shall be shared equally between the government and private Haj schemes. The meeting was informed “a quota of 50pc each shall be reserved for sponsorship scheme” against both (government and private) schemes.

The ECC has agreed to provide foreign exchange cover of $90 million, said an announcement made after the meeting. The meeting noted that the sponsorship scheme under the government quota alone would fetch $194m, while the sponsorship scheme would generate over $250m in the private quota, depending on the cost of various packages.

SBP to cover $90m gap in Haj scheme; ‘sponsorship’ applicants to deposit full dues in forex remitted from abroad, not from foreign currency accounts held in Pakistan

This, it is expected, will minimise the pressure on foreign exchange reserves. The foreign exchange cover for the entire government Haj scheme was estimated at $284m, of which about $194m would come from the government’s sponsorship quota, leaving a gap of $90m that the ECC approved to be covered by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The meeting also approved a tentative Haj package for northern region (Islamabad, Lahore, Pesha­war, Multan, Faisalabad etc) at Rs1,175,000 and for the south region (Karachi, Sukkur and Quetta etc) at Rs1,165,000. Last year, the Haj package stood at about Rs755,000 for the northern region and Rs746,000 for the southern region.

Conditions for sponsorship

The applicants for both government and private Haj schemes will be required to deposit their full Haj dues in foreign exchange remitted from abroad and will not be allowed to deposit their dues from foreign currency accounts in Pakistan. Therefore, subject to utilisation of full sponsorship quota, the sponsorship scheme would bring in about $445m foreign exchange.

The sponsorship scheme of government quota would be utilised on a ‘first come first served basis’, while the ministry of religious affairs would decide about the unused quota of sponsorship schemes to regular or private schemes or its surrender to the Saudi government. Those who have performed Haj in past five years (since 2016) are not eligible for the package this year though this bar would not apply to intending pilgrims of sponsorship schemes.

The applicants would be required to have CNIC and passports with validity up to December 26, 2023 and must have a valid bank account. Around 3pc seats under the government quota would be reserved for hardship cases and 300 seats reserved for labour and low-paid employees of companies registered with EOBI and Workers Welfare Fund.

Haj operators would be required to sign a service provider agreement with the ministry of religious affairs.

Rs12bn supplementary grant for census Besides, the ECC approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs12bn to Planning Commission for conduct of Seventh Population & Housing Census against its demand of Rs24bn.

The committee also approved Rs3.244bn grant to Poverty Allev­iation and Social Safety for National Poverty Graduation Programme under a $21.5m grant assistance from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

However, a summary presented by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research on urea fertilizer requirement for the year 2023 was deferred with the direction to incorporate the recommendations of ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi-led committee on gas distribution plan that had been constituted by the ECC.

The ECC also deferred another summary submitted by the ministry of industries and production on solar panels and allied equipment manufacturing policy-2023 with the direction to review and revise the proposed policy considering inputs from all stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023