Samurdhi subsidies increased

Chaminda PERERA

The Samurdhi subsidies provided by the government to low income families around the country have been increased from April 1.

The minimum subsidy of the Samurdhi beneficiaries has been increased by 33 percent and samurdhi subsidies are to be directly remitted to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries from this month.

The government has adopted a novel method of granting Samurdhi subsidies under three categories, instead of the cumbersome process followed by the Samurdhi Authority earlier.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa beneficiaries in the Killinochchi, Mullativu and several Divisional Secretariat Divisions in the Vavuniya and Trincomalee and Jaffna districts where the Samurdhi programme had not been implemented due to the conflict will receive subsidies from this year. He said that the Samurdhi beneficiaries who received a subsidy ranging from Rs. 250 to Rs. 615 will receive Rs. 750 while the subsidy of Rs. 900 has also been increased to Rs. 1200.

“The subsidy of Rs 1,500 will remain unchanged” , he said. He said that the subsidies were issued to the beneficiaries in coupon form based on the number of members in the beneficiary families.

The Minister said the new system will allow the beneficiaries to use the money given as a subsidy as they wish and no outsider can take the money as it is directly remitted to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts.

The Minister said the new method of remitting the subsidy to Samurdhi beneficiaries accounts will prevent the deployment of a large number of officials to deliver coupons to 330 Divisional Secretariats annually.

Minister Rajapaska said that the government has made an allocation of Rs. 42,648 million for the provision of subsidies to over 1.5 million Samurdhi beneficiaries around the country, including North and East.

The Economic Development Minister said that the Ministry will conduct a full scale survey on the Samurdhi beneficiaries islandwide after the report of the population census is released.