Social safety net to widen

The government plans to bring more people under its social safety net programmes in the next budget with an eye on the upcoming national election.

It, however, will not increase the allowance per person for most of the schemes.

The number of beneficiaries who get allowances and food through the social safety net programmes will go up by about 10 lakh in 2018-19 to take the tally to 96 lakh.

As a result, the budgetary allocation for the schemes would mark a significant rise, said officials of the finance ministry.

In the current fiscal year, the government allocated Tk 54,206 crore for the programmes, which account for 13.54 percent of the total outlay.

The amount will cross Tk 65,000 crore in the next budget.

The officials said the government began to put emphasis on increasing the number of recipients from last year instead of raising the amount per person in order to bring more people under the safety net. The number of beneficiaries rose by seven lakh in the current fiscal year from a year ago.

At an inter-ministerial meeting on April 30, a minister said as the national election is approaching the number of beneficiaries will have to be increased, according to a source who was present in the meeting. In the next budget, the largest increase in terms of beneficiaries would be made under the Old Age Allowance programme, which gives Tk 500 every month to 35 lakh people.

The government is set to increase the number of recipients to 40 lakh.

Some 12.65 lakh women currently receive Tk 500 per month under the “Allowances for the Widow, Deserted and Destitute Women” programme.

The government plans to raise the number of beneficiaries to 14 lakh as the number of divorced, widowed and deserted women rose to 10 percent of the total women in the country, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The number of beneficiaries under the “Maternity Allowance Programme for the Poor” would go up from six lakh to seven lakh and the amount of allowance may increase slightly. 

An additional 80,000 people will be entitled to the “Allowance for the Financially Insolvent Disabled” as the recipients will increase from 8.25 lakh to 9.25 lakh. However, their allowance may remain unchanged at Tk 700 per month.

Besides, the number of beneficiaries under the Freedom Fighters category may increase to two lakh from 1.5 lakh. But the monthly honourarium of Tk 10,000 will remain the same.

The freedom fighters will receive two festival bonuses each year totalling Tk 20,000 and get Baishakhi allowance from the next fiscal year.

Education stipend for insolvent disabled students may go up by Tk 100 to Tk 150. Currently, it stands at Tk 500 at primary level, Tk 600 at secondary level, Tk 700 at higher secondary level and Tk 1,200 at higher level. The number of beneficiaries may rise slightly from the existing 80,000. Some 2.5 lakh lactating mothers could be eligible for allowances from the existing two lakh.

Monthly allowance for transgender people will be set at Tk 750 from Tk 700 now and the number of beneficiaries could go up to 8,000 from 7,000.

Programmes such as open market sale, vulnerable group feeding, test relief and food for work will continue in the next fiscal year and the number of beneficiaries under these schemes will go up.

At present, 23 ministries run more than 100 programmes, which often face complaints such as pilferage, corruption and overlapping.

To make the programmes more effective and corruption-free, the government is going to introduce electronic payment system, giving allowances directly to the beneficiaries, a finance ministry official said.