KUALA LUMPUR: The government is optimistic that the country's haj pilgrims quota will be increased, hence enabling the waiting period to be reduced.
said this was in line with the effort made by the Saudi Arabia government under its 2030 Vision to increase the number of pilgrims to five million people by 2030, compared with the current two million.
"Malaysia's quota (for haj) is subjected to the quota set by the Saudi Arabian government based on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) decision in 1998.
"The decision stipulated that the quota for each country is at the rate of 0.1 per cent of the total population of an Islamic country.
"Any effort to shorten the waiting period for performing the haj must be in line with the Saudi Arabia government's decision to approve the annual quota for each country, including Malaysia," he said during minister's question time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this in response to Datuk Adnan Abu Hassan (BN-Kuala Pilah) on the mechanism implemented by the government to reduce the waiting period for haj pilgrims.
The official haj quota for Malaysian pilgrims last year was 31,600.
Zulkifli added that the government had requested that the Saudi Arabian government increase the quota based on the country's latest population statistics.
"The government requests additional quotas every year. However, the reconsideration of the annual quota and the granting of additional quotas are subject to the decision of the Saudi Arabian government."
In terms of haj subsidies, he said that income classification for selected haj pilgrims according to the B40, M40 and T20 categories was based on the cooperation with government agencies to cross-check information of future pilgrims with the existing government database.
"Tabung Haji takes note of the government's efforts to establish the Central Database Hub (Padu) which integrates the socio-economic data of every household to ensure the fair and efficient distribution of subsidies.
"In line with the government efforts, TH will also consider improving the classification process of future pilgrims for the targeted financial assistance for haj."