Two more incentives of Tk 2,700 cr to combat coronavirus impacts

The government has announced two more incentives of Tk 2,700 crore to combat the effects of the coronavirus epidemic.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved a new incentive package to accelerate the country’s cottage, small and medium industries, improve the living standards of rural marginalized people and expand social security programmes for the extremely poor elderly and widows. 

The implementation of the package will start very soon, according to the sources of the Finance Ministry.

The finance division has recently held three view exchange meetings on various aspects of the economic recovery and incentive package to tackle impacts the coronavirus outbreak. 

The meetings were attended by senior government officials, business leaders, banks, development partners and organizations, research institutes, stakeholders from various sectors, press and media representatives and journalists.

In these meetings, it is recommended to improve accelerating the rural economy by expanding the scope of credit through banking as well as government and parastatal agencies/institutions related to cottage, small and medium enterprises, taking further steps for women-entrepreneurship and continuing to achieve poverty reduction targets. It is also recommended to improve the living standards of the people and to expand the social security programmes for the extremely poor and helpless families.  Two new incentive packages have been announced in this regard, according to the sources.

The size of the first newly approved package is Tk 1,500 crore, under which Tk 300 crore will be given to the small and medium enterprises (SME) Foundation, Tk 100 croe to Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSIC) and Tk 50 crore to Joyeeta Foundation.

Besides, Tk 50 crore will be given to NGO Foundation, Tk 300 crore to Social Development Foundation, Tk 300 crore to Rural Poverty Alleviation Foundation, Tk 100 crore to Small Farmers Development Foundation and Tk 300 crore to Bangladesh Rural Development Board for undertaking various activities to improve the living standards of marginalized people. 

Under the approved second package of Tk 1,200 crore, all the poor elderly and widows and abandoned women in 150 upazilas of the country will be covered under the allowance in the next 2021-2022 fiscal year.

The total number of incentive packages, including these two newly approved ones, climbed to 23, with a total financial outlay of Tk 1,24,053 crore, which is 4.44 percent of GDP.