With the introduction of the Universal Pension system and the rise in allocation and coverage for some vulnerable groups social safety net programmes widened in the next budget.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed to allocate a total of Tk 1.13576 trillion in the budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023 for the social safety net which is 16.75 per cent of the total budget and 2.55 per cent of GDP.
About the initiative to introduce a Universal Pension Scheme, the finance minister said, the government has decided to introduce a universal pension system from the next fiscal year in line with the pledge made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2008.
According to the minister, around 85 per cent workforce of Bangladesh’s labour market is employed in the informal sector and as there is no institutional social security framework for the informal sector and expatriate workers, there are chances of the uncertainty of livelihood in their old age.
It is high time to establish a universal pension system in Bangladesh as at present the number of working people is much higher than the elderly population, he noted.
“Under various programmes for social protection of the elderly and needy communities, our government is providing allowances to about 10.15 million beneficiaries. Bearing in mind, the government’s election pledge, a policy decision has been taken to enact the ‘Universal Pension Management Act, 2022’ to introduce a universal pension system to ensure a sustainable social safety net for the elderly and the needy people”.
The law has already been drafted. After passing through all necessary formalities, it will be possible to present this important law to the National Parliament by 2022, the minister hoped.
The minister also said the government is working to launch a National Social Insurance Scheme in the country.
“These are Unemployment Insurance, Maternity Insurance, Sickness Insurance, and Employment Injury Insurance. The Ministry of Labor and Employment has already taken steps to launch a pilot of the Employment Injury Scheme to protect workers from injury in the workplace”.
The finance minister told the parliament that already, 29 per cent of households have been covered by social safety net programmes, and budget allocations have increased almost eight-fold compared to the allocation made in the budget for FY2008-2009.
The minister said, in the FY2021-2022, allowances are being provided to 2.008 million disabled persons at the monthly rate of Tk 750.
The number of beneficiaries is planned to be increased by 0.357 million in the next FY2022-2023 to 2.365 million in place of 2.08 million, he said.
He proposed to increase the rate of monthly allowance by Tk 100, from Tk 750 to Tk 850 with an allocation of Tk 24.29 billion in FY2022-2023 as disability allowances.
Considering the priority of the ‘Mother and Child benefit programme, the minister proposed to increase the number of beneficiaries by 0.209 million and thus the total number of beneficiaries will be 1.254 million in FY2022-2023 from 10.45 million in FY2021-2022.
The total allocation for this sector in FY2022-2023 is Tk. 12.43 billion.
The Finance Minister said, in the wake of the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict and the disruption of the global supply chain, the government has launched the Family Card program to distribute essential commodities among the poor across the country at a low cost.
“A list of 10 million families has been finalised under this programme. A total of 10 million families including the families who have received Tk 2,500 as cash assistance during the pandemic period are getting a family card of TCB. As a result, about 50 million low-income population of the country will be directly benefited from this government initiative” he said in his budget speech.
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