First Travel Must Take Responsibility to Refund Jamaah's Fund

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said First Travel is fully responsible for the refund or refund of candidates for Umrah pilgrims who are victims of the troubled travel agency.

"So this is the responsibility of First Travel so First Travel must be responsible for the money that pilgrims have been paid to, if the pilgrims to them," said Lukman in Jakarta, Thursday (17/08/2017)

He said there are two responsibilities of First Travel to his congregation that must return the money that has been deposited to leave Umrah to the Holy Land or dispatch his congregation through other travel agencies.

The second option for dispatching pilgrims should not be made by First Travel because the operating license has been revoked but through other travel agents with the cost of First Travel.

First Travel cannot simply escape responsibility even though the owner has been designated a suspect in the Police.

"So the two obligations are still attached to First Travel even if the permit is revoked," he said.

According to Lukman, the authority of Kemenag in the First Travel case is on the regulation of Umrah travel agency operating license. While the umrah is operated by travel agencies that officially get permission from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The issue of the need for the government to set a lower limit on the price of the umrah package, he said, is being reviewed by the government as the absence of price restrictions is often used by travel agencies to capture victims at low prices.

The government, he said, has not currently operated the umrah as it did on Hajj affairs. Until now the government is still focused on the implementation of Hajj as a national task.

"Let umrah be done by the community through its travel agencies but must be responsible, therefore we will further improve our supervision," he said.