The proposed budget has barely increased the allocation for the social safety net facilities for the poor when they mostly needed it amid high inflation.

There are 115 social security programmes the government mentioned in the new budget for the poor and vulnerable people including aged people, women and children.

In the proposed budget the allocation for social security was set at Tk1, 13,576 crore, a 1.89 percent more than the revised allocation for the current fiscal year.

The increase was only 1.89 per cent, much lower than the average rate of increase of 17 per cent between FY10 and FY22.

Of the social security programmes, five were for direct cash assistance as constant allowances and eleven for food assistance and employment creation.

The cash assistance directly goes to the beneficiaries so that they can buy essentials and meet daily expenses.

But, compared to the outgoing budget, only 5.66 lakh new beneficiaries were added to the allowance receivers’ list this time. The government will add an extra Tk812 crore to expand the list.

But per person allowance has not gone up for the ultra-poor except for the people with disabilities for whom it rose to Tk850 from that of Tk750 each.

A total of 57 lakh elderly and widows who have been receiving an allowance of Tk500 for the last six years will get no hike, despite high inflation.

Food assistance under seven programmes saw a slash of Tk380.44 crore in the proposed budget.

People will have to face trouble while buying essentials at subsidized prices as allocation for the OMS has been slashed by Tk223 crore while 16.60 lakh people will go out of the coverage.

OMS gained much popularity because of the Covid-19 pandemic and price hike of commodities amid Russia-Ukraine war. It will harm low-income and fixed-income households mostly due to high inflation.

Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the social protection in terms of direct cash support to the poor should be scaled up.

Sales of essential items in the open market at reduced prices should be made available in abundance to meet the demand of the poor and low-income groups.

“The budget comes short in terms of expanding social safety net allocations in view of rising demand,” she said.  

Where is bigger budget then gone?

The proposed budget will bring 3.65 lakh new people with disabilities under the net. Moreover, 2.09 lakh beneficiaries will be added under the mother and child support programme.

Three more sectors got the highest allocation - housing construction projects for the insolvent freedom fighters got Tk761.83 crore with the highest rise of 58.09 per cent.

Pension for retired government employees and their families went up from Tk23, 010 crore to Tk 28, 037 crore at 21.85 per cent hike while the allocation for honorarium of the freedom fighters was raised by 1.09%.

Allocation for pension has increased from Tk23, 010 crore in the revised budget for the FY22 to Tk28, 037 crore in the budget of FY23. This represents an increase of 21.8 per cent which is more than ten times the rate of increase of overall social protection allocation.

Nine programmes meant for poor to get less allocation       

Allocation to nine programmes meant for poor, destitute and underprivileged population of the country saw reduction in the budget.

Employment generation programme for the poor received 4.94 per cent allocation, open market sales 11.50 per cent, relief works (flood, drought, cyclone and others) 55.25 per cent, rehabilitation and alternative employment generation for beggars 55.22 per cent, infrastructure and livelihood improvement in haor and coastal areas 53.45 per cent, Gucchagram (climate victims’ rehabilitation) project 32.86 per cent, flood management and livelihood improvement project in char/haor areas 29.71 per cent, construction of flood shelters in flood and river erosion-prone areas 24.68 per cent and poverty reduction of marginalized population in extreme poor northern areas 24.24 per cent.