As much as 43.2 percent of the allocation under the social safety net overhead for the next fiscal year will go towards government employees’ pensions and agricultural subsidies.

The government is setting aside Tk 1,45,000 crore in the next fiscal year’s programme for social safety net schemes, up 14.4 percent year-on-year, with about 9.7 percent of the sum going towards the BNP’s flagship Family Card programme.

The interim government is likely to introduce a transparent system for social safety net schemes in the upcoming budget, increasing the number of beneficiaries by around 10 lakh while slashing one-third of the existing programmes.

Without a robust selection mechanism capable of identifying the most deserving families, the vision for a comprehensive and inclusive social protection system will remain unfulfilled.

Only 40 percent of social safety net budget catering to poor, vulnerable groups

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today proposed increasing the social safety net programme allocation by 11 per cent year-on-year for fiscal year 2023-24.

Almost a decade after the approval of the NSSS, the country has not yet established a single registry system or installed a robust MIS.

Govt must be ready for the enormous challenges that lie ahead