All payments, including arrears, to be made by April 18:
Nearly 2 Mn citizens receiving Aswesuma allowance:
State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe has announced that after reviewing appeals and objections, an additional 182,140 families have qualified to receive benefits under the Aswesuma welfare benefit programme. He stated that all payments, including arrears related to these families, will be settled by April 18.
Consequently, 1,854,000 individuals are currently receiving benefits. The Government has allocated Rs. 58.5 billion for this purpose.
However, approximately 200,000 families who have met all the qualifications to receive the benefits are yet to open their bank accounts and update the necessary information. Despite efforts by regional secretariats and the media to inform these families, there has been no response from them so far. The Minister also mentioned that the survey related to Aswesuma is scheduled to begin in May. The Government aims to include 2.4 million families in the Aswesuma welfare benefit programme, with Rs. 205 billion allocated for this in the current year’s Budget.
Mahinda Aluthgedara