Finance Minister unveiled Tk 400,266 crore national budget for 2017-18 financial year (FY18) at the National Parliament. The budget speech began at about 1:30pm on Thursday.

‘In order to increase the social security coverage and improve living standards of poor’, the minister  proposed several initiatives for FY 2017-18, which included allocating two festival allowances of Tk 10,000 each for the valiant freedom fighters in addition to their monthly honorarium.

Besides, he proposed raising the number of recipients of old age allowances from 31.50 lakh to 35 lakh; raising the number of widow and oppressed women by 10 percent to 12.65 lakh; increasing the rate of allowance for financially insolvent disabled persons to Tk. 700, increasing it by Tk. 100 and raising the number of beneficiaries by 10 percent which will raise the total number to 8.25 lakh;

increasing the number of beneficiaries of the educational stipend allowances for the disabled person both at the primary and secondary levels by 10,000 adding 5000 at each level; raising the allocation for special allowance for transgender people to Tk. 11.35 crore increasing it by Tk. 2.35 crore; raising the allocation for special/ old age allowances of bede and other backward communities to Tk. 27.00 crore increasing

by it Tk. 6.32 crore; raising the allocation of financial assistance for patient 56 suffering from cancer, kidney diseases, liver cirrhosis, stroke related paralysis and congenital heart diseases to Tk. 50 crore from Tk. 20 crore; allocating Tk. 15 crore for the scheme of improving the livelihood of tea labourers and making one-time payment of Tk. 5000 per head as substitute of food support;

Raising the number of beneficiaries of maternal allowances to 6 lakh increasing it by 1.0 lakh;

Raising the number of beneficiaries of maternity allowances for working lactating mother to 2.00 lakh increasing it by 20,000.

‘Besides, we will continue the social protection programmes including VGD. We have undertaken multifarious programmes for the physically challenged persons. I propose to allocate a total of Tk 1,017 crore for these programmes in FY 2017-18 which is 31 percent higher compared to the current fiscal year. We are considering establishing one ‘Resource Centre’ for the physically challenged persons in each divisional city and, preserving quota for them in possible areas’, said the minister.