Social safety with an election bent – Dhaka Tribune

In the proposed budget for 2017-18, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has added an additional seven lakh new people to the social safety allowances, introduced two festival allowances for freedom fighters and gave an additional Tk2,200cr in block allocation for the local government division.

This unusual jump in the allocations in the governments last full budget in this term is being interpreted by many as a special offering with the next general elections in mind.

Towfiqul Islam Khan, research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue sees the jump in allocation, especially for local government and rural development, as a way to robustly work with the common people.

Usually, political governments take such initiatives in their last budget to please people with a political impulse in mind, he added.

Muhith on Thursday proposed to raise the numbers of recipients of old age allowances to 3.5 million from 3.15 million, the allowance for widows and the oppressed to 1.27 million from 1.11 million, disability allowances to 825,000 from 600,000, education stipend for students with disability to 10,000 at both primary and secondary levels, and maternity allowances to 600,000 from 264,000.

Tk11.35 crore has been allocated as special allowance for transgender people, while the allowance for financially insolvent disabled people has been increased to Tk700 per month.

In addition, the government will continue the existing social protection programmes, including the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programme.

The total allocation of the governments Social Safety Net scheme for the fiscal 2016-17 is Tk45,230 crore.

At present, the government has been providing Tk2196 crore among 180,000 freedom fighters as monthly honorarium, in the fiscal 2016-17.

In addition to that, the government has proposed to provide festival allowance for listed freedom fighters to make their lives easier and improve their status.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said that In addition to their regular monthly honorarium, I propose to provide them with two festival allowances at Tk10,000 each from now.

Though the government has been increasing the coverage of social safety net, gradually each year, a significant jump for a certain community is a clear indication that the government trying to courts favours ahead of the next election, an economist, asking to remain unnamed, told the Dhaka Tribune.

The Election Commission has indicated that the next National Parliament Elections is likely to be held at the end of the next year.

Special protection scheme for Haor areas

The government has already employed emergency schemes to provide 30kg rice every month to each of the 330,000 destitute and flood-affected families in Haor areas, the finance minister said in his budget speech.

In addition, Tk57 crore has been allocated to provide cash assistance to the affected people on a monthly basis.

Tk82.07 crore has been allocated for 91,447 beneficiaries under the Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest (EGPP).

Loan recovery will remain suspended until the situation in Haor areas has improved, the minister said.

Besides, new loan at concessional rates have been disbursed among affected farmers, and facilities have been provided for re-scheduling credit, he added.

Block allocation

The proposed budget for 2017-18 fiscal also saw block allocation for different ministries and divisions through the annual development Programme.

The Local Government Division will get Tk2177 crore more than the running fiscal. The revised budget for this division in the current fiscal is Tk19,287 crore, while the proposed budget is Tk21,464 crore.

At the same time, the Rural Development and Co-operatives Division will receive Tk262 crore more than the current fiscal. The revised budget for this division in current fiscal is Tk1152 crore while the proposed budget is Tk1414 crore.

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Social safety with an election bent - Dhaka Tribune