The interim government proposed to allocate Tk 1,16,731 crore in the social security sector for the financial year 2025-26, reducing the sector鈥檚 allocation by almost 15 per cent.
Last year, the allocation for the social security sector was Tk 1,36,026 crore.
Finance adviser Slehuddin Ahmed announced the new budget in a televised speech on Monday which noted the hardship in life brought along by staggering inflation and the drop in staple rice production due to natural disasters.
Except pensions of government employees, the social security budget will be Tk 81,297 crore.
Social security budget has been the target of staunch criticism for its vagueness as it incorporated retired government officials鈥� pension, together with national savings certificate interest, and agricultural subsidy. A study of the Center for Policy Dialogue last year revealed that the three sectors accounted for 46 per cent of the overall social safety net budget of the last year.聽聽
鈥楻etired government officials are not poor or considered marginalised and, therefore, covering them with social security just makes no sense,鈥� said economist Anu Muhammad.
Informal sector accounts for about 90 per cent of Bangladesh鈥檚 economy and people engaged in work in the sector are often exploited. Large numbers of informal sector workers are poor and many of them come from marginalised communities.
But just like the past Awami League government, overthrown by a student-led mass uprising, the interim government was vague about the social security budget, without giving a breakdown of how much of the allocation is really going to help the poor.
In August last year, in an analysis the CPD noted that the rate of increase in pension allocations for retired government officials has always been higher than the rate of increase in the total social safety net budget allocation.
In the proposed social safety net budget of 2025, the overall social safety net budget represented a 12 per cent increase compared to the year before whereas the pension allocation underwent 36 per cent increase over the same time.
The social security budget was Tk 95,683 crore in 2021, including Tk 22,010 crore of the pension, the CPD said. In 2025, the pension budget was Tk 36,580 crore.
The finance adviser in his speech said that they focused on increasing both the number of beneficiaries and per capita allocation to reduce poverty and social inequality, and to improve the standard of living of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable people.
He proposed to increase the monthly rate of old age allowance from Tk 600 to Tk 650, monthly allowance for widow, deserted and destitute women from Tk 550 to Tk 650, monthly allowance for the disabled from Tk 850 to Tk 900, and the rate of monthly allowance given under the mother and child benefit program from Tk 800 to 850. He also proposed to increase the monthly allowance rate for disadvantaged communities to Tk 650.
鈥楾he increase in the allocation for the poor is insufficient,鈥� said Anu Muhammad.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, has been providing essential commodities like lentils, soya bean oil, and others to 57 lakh families since January 2025. Under the food-friendly programme, 50 lakh low-income families are currently receiving 30 kgs of rice at the rate of Tk 15 per kg for 5 months in a year. The finance adviser proposed to increase it to 6 months from the next financial year. He also proposed to provide assistance to a total of 55 lakh families by covering an additional 5 lakh families under the food-friendly programme.
The social safety net programme is also marred by wrong selection of beneficiaries through corruption and power abuse.
鈥楾here are no structural shifts in allocations for education, health and social protection, and the funding remains inadequate,鈥� said economist Selim Raihan, also executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling.
The finance adviser also proposed to allocate Tk 405.20 crore for the families of the martyrs and the injured in the July mass uprising. The adviser said that in the outgoing fiscal the uprising victims received Tk 232.60 crore.聽
