NOTE TO HILATH: The Hajj pilgrimage exaction?

Dear friend,

This is a problem almost everybody knows about but seems no government can stop it or rather doesn't want to stop it.

People going to the Hajj pilgrimage by paying extra money to private groups really don't have any choice other than to pay the 'people in charge' what they ask as the Islamic pilgrimage - compulsory for any Muslim at least once in their lifetime if they are healthy and can afford it - is not something that can be done without their permission and services. There are only the government quotas and the private group quotas. So the people who want to go to Hajj doesn't have any choice but go with one of them. Yet, the people who are in higher-up positions seem like they do have a choice and also the power to stop this. This year the government could have leaned on the first-time bids where they had quoted high prices, since some groups who got approved later by the government are also charging so much extra, thereby making almost no difference in the amount people have to pay to private groups in the end.

It is well-known that private parties will always charge more than the government in any area of service. So instead of messing with the Hajj Corporation queue in underhanded and more corrupt ways and snatching the spots of the ones who actually deserve on a queue basis, other people have a chance to choose to go with a private group even if it costs more because they can afford it or some might have a critical and very sound reason to go on Hajj urgently.

The ultimate question is do people who want to go to Hajj opt to wait and deliberately not go to Hajj just because the 'people in power' are charging extra, or do those people just pay away the extra money and go because there is no other way to go to Hajj? And the other more important question is will the actual problem of private groups secretly charging insane amounts ever stop?

Sincerely yours,
XX