PESHAWAR: The Travel Agents Association of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has rejected the imposition of additional tax of Rs56,000 on visa for Umrah and Haj by the Saudi government and urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to play his role for withdrawal of the tax.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, Travel Agents Association’s provincial chairman Shamsher Ali said that in the past the tax was just 650 riyals which had now been increased to 2,650 riyals on those applying for Umrah or Haj for the second time.

Flanked by the office-bearers and some members of the association, Mr Ali said that the increase in tax on visa would deprive millions of people annually from going to the holy places.

Sharing data, he said that every year about 1.2 million Pakistani citizens performed Umrah and 184,000 Haj.

He said that if the decision of new tax was not withdrawn at least 40 per cent of the people would remain deprived of Haj and Umrah.

He said that some other countries had already rejected the decision about increase in the visa tax. He said that 36 airlines were operating from Pakistan and in case of increase in the tax thousands of airline employees would lose their jobs.

The travel agents, he said, were the major taxpayers as about 1,000 such agents were dealing in Umra, Haj and tour and travel operations and the decision would cause a big loss to the country’s economy.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2016