By Abdul Basith MA, TwoCircles.net,
Kozhikode: The Central Government’s move to increase lower limit of annual turnover of Haj operators is seen as a well-thought out plan to curb small players and promote giants – one of them is run by a relative of a central minister.
The central government seems to have adopted a policy of helping the large scale operators by increasing the requisite annual turnover amount from 50 lakh rupees to one crore rupees and the Bank guarantee from 10 lakh rupees to 25 lakh rupees. The year before the total requisite business was annually estimated as 25 lakh rupees and the bank guarantee was only 5 lakh rupees.
The Kerala Hajj Committee chairman, PTA Raheem MLA, who is about to step down from the post told TCN that the rapid increase in the requisite annual turnover amount for private Hajj operators has brought about a situation that only three Private Hajj Group Operators in Kerala will be competent enough to fulfil the criterions for attaining Licence.
The small scale operators are denied with the licence and this brings in a situation where the Hajis will be solely dependent on the large scale operators. These giants are thus able to charge high amounts on the Hajj pilgrims, due to their monopoly created by denying licence to small scale operators, said the Hajj Committee Chairman. He had earlier demanded equal representation for the small scale operators as well, in a meeting presided over by the Kerala Industrial Minister PK Kunjalikutty, but went unheard.
The justification given by the central government is that, it won’t be tough for any group to derive an annual turn over amount of one crore rupees because each operator will be allotted with a minimum quota of 50 and two lakh rupees per Haji would sum up to one crore rupees. But the astonishing fact is that the large scale operators are often allotted with a quota of around 600.
A hajj group giant said to be under the ownership of a central minister has been subject to criticisms as they are believed to have been bagging huge quota under the central influences of the minister.
The other central govt laws which make the survival tough for the small scale operators are that, they are obliged to have a three year experience and that they should submit their returns through a chartered accountant. The external affairs ministry had earlier cancelled licences of around 170 small scales operators on the grounds that their offices were not having 250 square feet area.
Despite these justifications from the part of the govt, the small scale operators believe that though the courts and govt were aware regarding this earlier too they are enacting such rules and conditions now because they want to keep away the small scale operators from the scene as it could easily pave way for easy extraction of money from Hajis.
With the small scale operators thrown out being called uncompetitive, the large scale operators have created a monopoly in Hajj operations and are now able to charge the Haji’s more than two and half lakh rupees which was only one and half lakh rupees last time when Sasi Taroor was the minister of state for external affairs. The minimum requisite annual turn over amount was then 50 lakh, bank guarantee 10 lakh and small scale operators some how survived the competition. During that time, with small scale operators still existent and ready to take Hajis at reasonable rates the giants were not able exploit Haji’s, says PTA Raheem MLA.
Besides there are criticisms that the large scale operators are attaining billions from the Haji’s by making use of the free hajj permits granted by the Saudi govt. Licences are rejected to small scale operators by asking to fulfil uphill, tough tasks very adjacent to the time of allotting quotas, which then directly gets allotted to large scale operators.
The small scale operators in Kerala since times have been directly taking Hajis to Pilgrimage places in a satisfactory manner under reasonable rates and they have been in the field since years. So the new laws from the govt are aimed at helping out new agencies and tour operators capable of investing huge money in the sector, says the All India Hajj Umrah Tour Organisations Association.