AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Mehr
Wednesday

10 October 2018

2:31:51 PM
912274

Arbaeen pilgrims to pay visa fees at more affordable rates

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on Wednesday that the government will grant secondary dollar rates to pilgrims visiting the neighboring Iraq to attend the Arbaeen pilgrimage.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on Wednesday that the government will grant secondary dollar rates to pilgrims visiting the neighboring Iraq to attend the Arbaeen pilgrimage.

Arbaeen marks forty days after the Day of Ashura, the day Imam Hussein (AS) was martyred in the Battle of Karbala.

Regarding the recent volatility in currency market, Rahmani Fazli said the latest government announcement demonstrates that pilgrims applying for visa will be charged around 80,000 rials per dollar.

Currently, Iranians have to pay some $40 to get permission for entering the Iraqi soil.

Reportedly, over 20 million pilgrims visit the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf every year.

The move is made to protect pilgrims from the fluctuating exchange rates of the US dollar.

Iranian rial has been on a falling trend in the past weeks. The national currency plunged to the record low of 192,000 on the unofficial market against dollar late last month.

However, the rial has regained some of its previously lost value after the Central Bank of Iran announced new policies to manage the market. Many people came to sell their dollar banknotes which in turn resulted in further depreciation of foreign currencies, most notably US dollar, against the rial.


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