Al Amin :
The government is going to increase the allocation for social safety-net programmes in the upcoming budget as many people have fallen below the poverty line due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The allocation for the social safety-net programmes is likely to go up by 30 per cent to Tk 125,00 crore in the next fiscal’s budget (2021-22) from Tk 95,574 crore allocated in the current fiscal’s budget (2020-21), Finance Ministry sources said.
Experts, however, demanded enhancing social safety-net budget to 4.0 per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) instead of the current allocation of nearly 3.0 per cent.
Since many people have become poor afresh due to coronavirus, they said, the government should increase budgetary allocation for social protection.
“I also think that the allocation for social safety-net programmes should be boosted in the next budget as lots of people have fallen below the poverty line for Covid-19. They should be brought under the state-sponsored social protection system,” Dr Ahsan Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute, Bangladesh, told The New Nation yesterday.
The number of the “new poor” in Bangladesh stood at 24.5 million, or 14.7 per cent of total population, in March due to fallout of Covid-19 pandemic, according to a latest survey conducted jointly by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD).
The study estimated that the new poor constituted 21.2 per cent of the total population in June last year, now they constitute 14.7 per cent still a staggering number.
“Urgent initiatives have to be taken for urban poor and “new poor.” They should be bought under the social safety-net programmes by extending food and cash aid to them,” said Dr Mansur, adding, “Since poverty has increased for Covid-19, allowances for vulnerable people should be raised.”
He pointed out that the current allocation of Tk 500-700 for each vulnerable poor is very nominal. It should be at least Tk 1,000.
“There were frequent reports of the misuse and mismanagement in distributing the of social protection funds. In addition, there is a lack of governance in the selection and distribution systems of the allowances for the vulnerable. So, the governance must address the issues to ensure disbursement of such funds to the real beneficiaries,” said Dr Mansur.
“The planned allocation for the upcoming budget is not enough for the low-income people of the country and especially for the new poor — those who have fallen into poverty due to the pandemic,” said Selim Rahin, Executive Director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM).
“These people need cash support to survive amid the pandemic,” he opined.
Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka office, said, “The allocation is not the main issue at the moment. But we have to think about the proper use of the allocated money.”
