SOCIAL SAFETY IN COMING BUDGET FF allowances to go up [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

SOCIAL SAFETY IN COMING BUDGET FF allowances to go up

Local May 12, 2019

The government is likely to increase the allowances for freedom fighters but keep the rates of other grants under the social safety programmes unchanged in the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
Officials said that the policymakers had decided to substantially increase the monthly honorarium for the freedom fighters following a demand from the ministry of liberation war affairs.
But the allowances for widows, deserted and destitute women and for insolvent disabled persons might remain unchanged in the new budget against the backdrop of resource shortage, they said.
Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is scheduled to announce the new budget on June 13.
The monthly allowance of Tk 10,000 for a freedom fighter is likely to be increased by Tk 2,000 against the proposal for an increase by 50 per cent.
Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Huq told New Age on Saturday that they had proposed a Tk 5000 raise in the honorarium for the freedom fighters.
The government currently provides a monthly allowance of Tk 10,000 to each of the country’s 1,87,293 freedom fighters for their contribution to the country’s independence in 1971.
Besides, the freedom fighters are entitled to receive other financial benefits under the titles of Victory Day allowance and Boishakhi (Bengali New Year) allowance, introduced in the current fiscal year, and 125 litres of water daily at free of cost in the metropolitan areas under miscellaneous benefits.
Mozammel Huq said that as per their calculation an additional Tk 5,000 crore would be needed to meet the demand for enhanced honorariums and allowances for the freedom fighters in the next fiscal.
For the current fiscal year, a total of Tk 32,318 crore has been allocated to f inance the country’s 16 major social safety net programmes.
The honorarium for the freedom fighters, honorarium and medical allowances for the injured freedom fighters and ration for the shaheed families and injured freedom fighters account for Tk 3,633 crore.
The amount, according to finance ministry officials, is the third highest under the social safety net programmes after Tk 22,639 crore paid in pension to the retired government employees and their families.
The old age allowance, the allowances for the widowed, deserted and destitute women and the allowances for financially insolvent disabled people have taken Tk 4,080 crore in the outgoing fiscal year with the number of beneficiaries for the old age allowance alone being 40 lakh.
The government also provides Tk 500 to an aged citizen monthly.
The amount of allowance for a widow is also Tk 500 and the number of the beneficiaries is 1.4 lakh.
Around one lakh financially insolvent disabled persons receive Tk 700 monthly.
Finance ministry officials said that though the rates of the old age allowance, the allowances for the widowed, deserted and destitute women and the allowances for the financially insolvent disabled persons would not increase, the number of beneficiaries are likely to go up in the new fiscal year.
Not only the coverage, but also the rate of the widow allowance should also be increased considering the inflation, said Naripokkho member Shireen B Huq.
The widow allowance of Tk 500 has been unchanged since in 2016-17.