Dissecting the Alleged Hajj Cartel
Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah of the Republic of Indonesia, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, revealed that he received condemnation from a number of community organisations after using the term ‘Hajj cartel’ at the Al Jam’iyatul Washliyah Congress on 8 July 2026. Dahnil stressed that the term was not directed at any particular group, but rather served as criticism of alleged practices that damage the governance of hajj pilgrimage organisation.
He revealed indications of irregularities, including fraudulent practices in the management of DAM funds and badal hajj, with transaction values said to reach billions of rupiah. According to him, the establishment of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is aimed at realising a clean, transparent and accountable system for organising the hajj, and ensuring that services to pilgrims are free from rent-seeking, corruption and various forms of irregularity that could harm the public.
Organising the hajj is one of the largest public endeavours in Indonesia, with a circulation of funds reaching tens of trillions of rupiah each year. The lengthy waiting list and the size of this religious market niche create their own vulnerabilities from the perspectives of business law and consumer protection.
Recently, the term ‘Hajj Cartel’ has come to the surface following findings by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah and the Hajj Organising Body (BPH) regarding systematic, structured and massive practices that exploit pilgrims for the economic benefit of a handful of individuals. The recently uncovered embezzlement of DAM (penalty/sacrifice) management funds and the manipulation of fictitious badal hajj programmes worth billions of rupiah have served as a loud alarm.
This issue is no longer merely a matter of moral violation or fiqh rules of worship, but has shifted into a phenomenon of economic crimes that meet the elements of unlawful acts (PMH), systematic fraud, and indications of unfair business competition.
Legal Construction of the ‘Cartel’ in the Hajj Organisation Ecosystem
Juridically, the term ‘cartel’ is regulated under Law Number 5 of 1999 concerning the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition, particularly in Article 11. A cartel is defined as an agreement between a business actor and its competing business actor, intended to influence prices by arranging the production and/or marketing of a good and/or service.
In the hajj organisation ecosystem, this anomaly can be broken down into several clusters of modus operandi. First, the Core Component Services Cartel (Accommodation and Transport), namely the alleged existence of secret agreements (tacit collusion) between rogue brokers, guidance groups (KBIHU), or certain agencies with facility providers in Saudi Arabia (such as hotels, Masyair transport, and catering) to monopolise access, inflate prices (price fixing), or allocate quotas unfairly.
Second, the Non-Facilities Cartel (Illegal Badal Hajj and DAM Syndication), where a concrete case discovered was the unilateral tariff-setting by an illegal syndicate network imposed on pilgrims for badal hajj (for example Rp10 million per person, whereas local domestic hajj costs far more than that) and the unilateral deduction of DAM funds outside the official Adahi institution. This is categorised as organised extortion and massive fraud.