Allowances of poor, destitute and backward population to rise by maximum 500 percent

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has proposed to increase by a maximum of 500 percent allowances for the poor, destitute and backward populations under the social protection programme.

He said the beneficiaries would receive the money through electronic processes, leading to timely and speedy delivery of services and a deepening of the financial inclusion process.

The minister presented a Tk 3.14 trillion national budget for the 2016-17 financial year in Parliament on Thursday.

In his budget speech, he said the government had been implementing a significant number of social protection programmes.

“These programmes will continue in future,” he said, adding that in order to make them more focussed, “we have started implementing the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS)”.

The proposals he made are as follows:

* Increasing the number of beneficiaries of old-age allowances by 5 percent and their monthly allowance to Tk 500.

* Raising the allowances for widow, oppressed, and destitute women to Tk 500 and the number of beneficiaries to 1.15 million.

* Hiking the rate of allowance for financially insolvent disable persons to Tk 600 and raising the number of beneficiaries by 25 percent.

* Increasing the rate of special allowance for transgender people from Tk 500 to Tk 600 and the allowances of ‘Bede’ and other backward communities from Tk 400 to Tk 500.

* Allocating Tk 150 million, up from Tk 100 million, to improve the livelihood of tea labourers.

* Raising the allocation of financial assistance for patients suffering from cancer, kidney diseases, liver cirrhosis, stroke-related paralysis and congenital heart diseases from Tk 200 million to Tk 300 million.

* Raising the number of destitute women beneficiaries of the VGD programme to 1 million.

* Increasing the number of beneficiaries of maternity allowances by 90 percent to 500,000.

* Bringing 180,300 poor mothers under the umbrella of Working Lactating Mother Assistance Programme by extending it to all municipalities.