Govt now in strong position to face any Covid-inflicted trouble: Kamal

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government has a strong social safety net programme in the country and hence there is no reason for people to fall into a troubling situation if any Covid-19 third wave shows up.

“We have the resources which can face any kind of situation even if the Coronavirus pandemic turns the worst,” he told the reporters on Sunday after a cabinet committee on economic and public purchase virtual meeting. 

Kamal said the government carefully handled the last two coronavirus waves.

He also said, “We are afraid that the current pandemic is worse than last year’s.”

The government allocated a total of Tk 107,624 crore social safety net programmes in 2021-2022.

In the 2021 fiscal year, just prior to the Eid festival, the government had distributed cash support among 36.50 lakh low-income families to help them survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Each marginalised family received Bangladeshi taka 2,500 [$29] as once only grant through the mobile phone banking system. The beneficiaries also include 100,000 farming families who were affected by natural disasters.

The government is now almost implementing Tk 130,000 crore incentives and soft loan packages to businesses across the sectors for a period of three years.