Govt to raise allowance by 60pc

The government is going to increase allowance for freedom fighters by 60 percent to make it Tk 8,000 monthly per person.

The decision was taken last week in a meeting of social safety net with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

A finance ministry official said a circular would be issued very soon in this regard.

Currently, a freedom fighter gets Tk 5,000 as allowance per month. In June, Muhith in his budget speech for the current fiscal year (FY) said Tk 10,000 a month as allowance would be given to a freedom fighter aged above 65.

After the finance minister's announcement, on behalf of the freedom fighters it was said freedom fighters below the age of 65 were small in number. So, the facility for all freedom fighters should be same.

The official said now it was decided that from July 1, all freedom fighters would get monthly allowance of Tk 8,000. From the next FY, they each would receive Tk 10,000 as allowance.

At present, around 2 lakh freedom fighters receive allowance from the government budget for which Tk 2,000 crore has been allocated in the current FY budget.

The official said if each freedom fighter was given Tk 8,000 as allowance, the allocation would cover the rising demand of money.