Jakarta, NU Online
Interim Minister of Religious Affairs Agung Laksono who is also Coordinating Miniter of  People's Welfare, said that the implementation of hajj pilgrimage this year would be better.<>

"The hajj pilgrimage management is expected to be better this year as the hajj pilgrimage cost would be cut by about 8.2 percent. Thus the hajj pilgrimage will cost only about Rp33 million per pilgrim. It can even lower than that depending on the distance," Agung Laksono said over the weekend.

He said that preparations made so far for the implementation of the hajj pilgrimage this year had almost reached 100 percent. After all, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has signed a presidential decree on the hajj pilgrimage cost (BPIH).

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has also prepared a religious affairs ministers regulation which is expected to be approved on June 2. Regulations on the deadline of the BPIH payment and the amount of the BPIH a pilgrim has to pay has also been prepared.

"The BPHI this year is reduced by 8.2 percent and that is positive because efficiency can be implemented while the government will not reduce the quality of its services," he said.

The acting religious affairs minister said that the government had prepared all infrastructures for the implementation of the hajj programs in Saudi Arabia, including lodging, transportation and catering.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq