Allowances for elderly, widow and differently abled persons increasing

Several allowances, including those for the elderly and widows, have been increased in the proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed made this announcement in the proposed budget on Monday (June 2).

In the budget proposal, Salehuddin Ahmed said: "To ensure poverty reduction, social inequality, and improvement in the standard of living of the poor, marginalized and vulnerable groups, we have focused on increasing both the number of beneficiaries and per capita allocation in this budget."

Some of the notable ones are - the monthly rate of elderly allowance has been proposed to be increased from Tk 600 to Tk 650, the monthly allowance of widows and diprived women from Tk 550 to Tk 650, the monthly allowance of the differently abled persons from Tk 850 to Tk 900, and the monthly allowance provided under the Mother and Child Support Programme from Tk 800 to Tk 850.

The size of the proposed budget has been estimated at Tk 7 lakh 90 thousand crores. This is Tk7,000 crore less than the original budget for the current 2024-25 fiscal year (7,97,000 crore taka), which is the first time in the history of Bangladesh that the budget size has been reduced.

The revenue collection target for the 2025-26 fiscal year has been set at Tk4,99,000 crore. The proposed budget deficit is Tk2,26,000 crore, which is 3.62% of GDP.

To meet this deficit, the government will rely on foreign loans, bank loans and savings certificates.

Earlier, the former caretaker government's Finance Adviser A B Mirza Md. Azizul Islam announced the budget for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years through television and radio.

In previous years, the budget was presented every Thursday in early June. The holy Eid-ul-Azha is on June 7. The Finance Advisor presented the budget this time before the Eid-ul-Azha holiday begins.