Unlike previous years, the finance minister yesterday in the proposed budget for the 2014-15 fiscal did not clearly state the total outlay and the number of beneficiaries of social safety net programmes (SSNPs).

Allocation for SSNPs was Tk 25,371 crore in the 2013-14 fiscal and Tk 23,097 crore in the previous year. Total beneficiaries were 680 lakh-man and 788 lakh-man in those two fiscal years respectively.

But this year’s budget document shows safety net and welfare schemes gotTk 13,974 crore allocation, up by over 23 percent than the revised budget for the outgoing fiscal year. The proposed outlay is 5.6 percent of the total budget ofTk 250,506 crore.

It seems that the government is shifting its policy to SSNPs to make it more effective, target-oriented and propoor as it found the expansion of safety net coverage alone is not enough for quality eradication of poverty and inequality. To achieve this goal, the government is on a final stage to complete the National Social Protection Strategy. Steps have been taken to prepare a list of hard-core poor and a National Population Register for proper identification of beneficiaries of SSNPs.

Priority will be given to education, health and family welfare and science and technology in this regard.

"The government is on a move to integrate SSNPs to social protection to pass the benefits on targeted people," said Mustafa K Mujeri, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, explaining why the proposed budget did not clarify the total outlay for SSNPs.

Documents show the coverage of some social protection programmes and allowances have hiked in the proposed budget.

For example, monthly honourarium for freedom fighters have been raised toTk 5,000 from Tk 3,000. The government is also taking initiatives to ensure housing facilities for the landless and insolvent freedom fighters throughout the country.

Some new programmes have also been included in the SSNPs, such as, construction of houses for accommodating die cleaning staff of Dhaka city corporations. A special allocation ofTk 50 crore has been proposed in die budget to build similar houses in the divisional and district towns. The rate and coverage of stipends for insolvent disabled and disabled students have been enhanced. The budget proposed to increase the number of disabled beneficiaries to 4 akh and that of disabled students to 50,000 in FY 2014-15.

Also, the National Foundation for the Disabled will be converted into a directorate immediately.

The budget proposed an allocation of Tk 20 crore to the trust established for the disabled with neuro-developmental disorder and Tk 5 crore to the trust for the welfare of the physically challenged.

An allocation of Tk 50 crore has been made for children welfare in the budget for the first time.