Maternity allowance through e-payment from January

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Bangla Tribune Desk
Published : 14:37, Aug 31, 2018 | Updated : 14:49, Aug 31, 2018

Maternity allowance through e-payment from January.About seven lakh poor mother across the country will get their maternity allowance through the electronic payment system G2P (Government to Person).
“We are working for disbursement of the maternity allowance through G2P. Under the system, more than 700,000 beneficiaries will directly draw the money every month by getting message of allowance through mobile apps and biometric verification,” Maternity Allowance Programme Director AJM Rezaul Alam told BSS on Thursday.
He said the beneficiaries can choose any kind of option like post office, mobile banking or agent banking to receive the money.
The system will ensure the beneficiaries getting allowance within a timeframe every month without any role of any middleman, he added.
Rezaul Alam, also assistant director of the Women Affairs Department, said the electronic payment system will create transparency in the process of giving allowances to the poor women.
The electronic payment system will play an important role to implement the Social Safety Net (SSN) Programmes and in this way Bangladesh will achieve the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he added.
Earlier, Finance Minister AMA Muhith launched the G2P payment system by sending to over 8,000 poor women of seven upazilas the allowances under the government’s SSN programme to ensure hassle-free payment.
The seven upazilas were Sonargaon, Srinagar, Savar, Tungipara, Kaliganj and Bhoirab.
In fiscal 2018-19, the government allocated Taka 64,177 crore for social safety net programme. This allocation has been increased to 2.53 percent of GDP and 13.81 percent of the total budget.
In fiscal 2017-18, the government allocated Taka 48,524 crore for this programme, which was 13.06 percent of the total budget.
In 2018-19 fiscal, the government allocated Taka 693 crore for maternity allowance which was Taka 380 crore in 2017-18 fiscal and Taka 318 crore in 2016-17 fiscal.
The number of recipients of maternity allowance has been increased to seven lakh from six lakh in 2017-18 fiscal and five lakh in 2016-17 fiscal.
The amount of the monthly allowance has also been increased to Taka 800 from Taka 500. The period of the allowance is two years.

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