Welfare expenditure soars to Rs.61,910 million

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Government's commitment to social welfare and safety net programs to ensure the well-being of vulnerable groups in society amounted to Rs.61,910 million during the first eight months of 2012. It reflected an increase of 24.6 percent over Rs.49,704 million recorded in the corresponding period in 2011.

The revisions introduced in Budget 2012 to increase the Samurdhi allowance to low income families resulted in enhancing the total Samurdhi Social Security payments to Rs.7,025 million, an increase of 36 percent over the same period in 2011. The Samurdhi program has benefited nearly 1.54 million families, improving their social needs, livelihood and income generation activities, Finance Ministry sources told the Sunday Observer.

The sources said the Government's assistance to differently abled soldiers continued with a total expenditure of Rs.9,770 million to meet their socio-economic needs. This is a 10.3 percent increase over the assistance given in 2011.

Meanwhile, the expenditure on the fertiliser subsidy program was Rs.35,465 million during the first eight months of 2012 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, following the Government's policy decision to extend the subsidy program to any crop with effect from May 2011. Nearly one million farmers have benefited from the program during the period under review.

The sources said several subsidy programs were also implemented by the Education Ministry to strengthen and expand the free education system. Free text books were provided at an expenditure of Rs.1,207 million which is an increase of 42.3 percent over the amount of Rs.848 million recorded in the corresponding period in 2011. The Government's expenditure on the provision of free school uniforms is Rs.1,640 million compared to Rs.822 million incurred in the same period in 2011.