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Tk 963 cr for poor women in budget

Staff Correspondent
Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said that two new programmes--allowance for poor lactating working mothers and rural employment and road maintenance programme for women- will be implemented at a cost ofTk 963 crore under the new budget for the fiscal 2008-09.
Besides, a programme titled ’AmaderShishu’ (Our children) is being launched to rehabilitate 1,500 children orphaned as a consequence of cyclone Side in familiesoftlieirdose relatives.
The programme titled Rural Employment and Road Maintenance Programme (RERMP), funded by the government at a cost of Tk 943 crore, would be launched from next fiscal year, which would generate 50,000 jobs annually in 4,926 unions. Under this programme, Tk 190 cro re will be spen t in the next fiscal year.
Rate of allowance for widowed, deserted and desti rate women has been increased to Tk 250 from Tk 220 in the proposed budget Besides, number of beneficiaries has also been increased from 825 lakh to 9 lakh. This will result in an allocation ofTk 270 crore which is 86 crore higher than the revised allocation of the current fiscal year.
Number of beneficiaries under the allowance for poor lactating mothers programme has been increased to 60.000 from 45.000 and for this purpose the finance adviser proposed to allocate Tk21 6 crore in die next fiscal year.
The finance adviser also proposed to raise the tax-free income ceiling by Tk 15,000 to Tk 165,000 for women taxpayers and those aged over 70.
The finance adviser termed the proposed budget as gender-sensitive, saying, “In tire budget for fiscal year 2007-08, gender expenditure accounted for 23.5 percent of the total budget. We propose to raise it to 263 percent in this budget”
For the working mothers of the garment sector, the finance adviser proposed to allocate Tk 20 crore for a new programme titled 'Allowance for Poor Dictating Working Mothers in Urban Areas’in the nextyear's budget
The Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) Programme will be extended to provide a monthly allowance of Tk 400 to an additional 40,000 underprivileged women of eight northern districts.
Besides, programmes such as Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets (REOPA), Maternal Health Voucher Scheme (MHVS) and Community Nutrition Programmes (CNP) would be strengthened further.
In order to take away child-labourers from risky' work environment 30,000 such children have been brought under non-formal education programme by incentivising their parents with microcredit
The finance adviser in his televised budget speech said the existing limit for tax-free income of Tk 150,000 would remain uncharged for others in fiscal 2008-09.