Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury says the government will evaluate the changes the 'Family Card' benefits bring to the cardholders after a certain period of full-scale distribution.
"What progress the benefits bring to their lifestyle, how much they make advances in the field of education and health, will be examined," he told newsmen Monday after a meeting of the 'Cabinet Committee on Family Card' at Bangladesh Secretariat in the capital.
The meeting finalised the Family Card Piloting Implementation (Amended) Guidelines 2026 and reviewed the draft Family Card Implementation Policy 2026 and gave approval in principle.
Also, the meeting reviewed and approved the administrative expenditure for implementing the Family Card recipe meant for aid to marginalised people across Bangladesh.
The minister says a big chunk of revenue budget will be spent on this programme. Allocation will be made for the programme every year and so the outcome also needs to be evaluated.
He makes it clear that no political parties have been involved in the selection process of Family Card to make sure real needy people reap the benefit of the scheme.
Also, the minister requests the officials concerned to make sure that ethnic minority group gets the benefit of Family Card.
"If someone lags behind, we need to analyse why they did so. Then it will be possible to take more effective steps in the future," says Mr Chowdhury.
Regarding the government plan for revival of the economy, the minister says the initial goal is to first stabilise the country's fragile economy and then lead it to prosperity.
He says the budget has very clearly stated that the economy will move from a fragile economy to a stable economy and from a stable economy to a prosperous economy.
"First, the fragile economy will have to be stabilised. Once it is stabilised, we will move towards prosperity. Then the economy will turn around."
He says: "In this budget we clearly mentioned for whom the allocation is made, whose life standard we want to change. This budget has not been made without including any citizen of the country. The budget has been made keeping everyone in mind."
He adds: "We call the whole thing democratisation of the economy."
Further explaining budgetary objectives, the finance minister says, "One group will get benefit and there will be patronage politics while the rest of the people will not get any opportunities in the economy. That is not desirable for the economy of a democratic country. That is why we are trying to bring about this change."
Social Welfare Minister Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, State Minister for Social Welfare Farzana Sharmin, State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam and Social Welfare Secretary Dr Mohammad Abu Yusuf along with officials concerned from various ministries were present at the meeting.
Mr Hossain said family cards will be given to 41 million families in four years of which 4.1 million families will get them in next fiscal year.
Anyone who is covered by any other social security programme will not get this card. Even if someone conceals it, the Finance Ministry will be able to detect it since the number of National Identity Card (NID) has been included in the card-issuance process.
Also, the meeting was told that new beneficiaries of the family card will be selected every four years. Those whose life standard is improved due to the programme, they will be excluded for the benefits. Then the new beneficiaries will come under this programme.
syful-islam@outlook.com
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