The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has waived excise duty on air tickets for next year's Hajj pilgrims to reduce the cost of Hajj. Apart from this, Value Added Tax (MUSAC) or VAT on passenger security fee, embarkation fee and airport security fee has also been withdrawn.
NBR has issued an order regarding this on Monday.
However, this is not the first time that duty has been withdrawn on air tickets of pilgrims. NBR has waived this duty several times before. Travel tax or excise duty is usually collected from passengers at the time of sale of airline tickets and deposited into the government treasury.
At present, an excise duty of Tk 4,000 has to be paid on air tickets to Saudi Arabia. It was waived for the pilgrims.
Apart from this, 2 thousand taka on air tickets of SAARC countries; 4,000 taka on tickets from countries other than SAARC countries and 6,000 taka on air tickets to North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Taiwan.
The holy Hajj may be held in Saudi Arabia on June 4, subject to the sighting of the moon. This time 1 lakh 27 thousand 198 people will get the opportunity to perform Hajj from Bangladesh.
Two packages have been announced for Hajj in 2025 under government management. In one package, government management package (housing within 3 kilometers around Masjidul Haram) will cost 4 lakh 78 thousand 242 taka. The other package (accommodation within one and a half kilometers around Masjidul Haram) will cost 5 lakh 75 thousand 680 taka. And privately, the cost of general package has been fixed at 4 lakh 83 thousand 156 taka.
