25 December 2024 09:49 am Views - 802
Colombo, December 25 (Daily Mirror) - A new Gazette Extraordinary has been issued, outlining the procedure for the payment of monthly benefit allowances to eligible families and individuals under the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Payment Scheme, effective from January 2025.
This Gazette Notification was issued by the President in accordance with the powers vested in him as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
The previous Gazette notification, issued by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on May 17, 2024, has been revoked by this new notification dated December 21, 2024.
Under the new Gazette notification, the monthly allowance for poor families has been increased from Rs. 8,500 to Rs. 10,000, while the allowance for extremely poor families has been raised from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 17,500. The allowance amounts for other categories remain unchanged.
The notification proposes monthly relief benefits of Rs. 5,000 for 480,000 transitional families from January to March 2025 and for 480,000 vulnerable families from January to December 2025.
Additionally, Rs. 10,000 will be provided to 960,000 poor families, and Rs. 17,500 to 480,000 extremely poor families, from January 2025 to June 2026. For families with two or fewer members, only half of these benefits will be provided.
The proposed monthly welfare allowances may be subject to slight adjustments based on the estimated number of beneficiary families. As per the Gazette notification, if a family has two or fewer members, they will receive only half of the stated allowance.
The notification further specifies that Rs. 7,500 will be provided monthly to 410,000 differently-abled individuals from January to June 2025. Similarly, Rs. 7,500 will be provided to 50,000 patients with chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDU), and Rs. 3,000 will be allocated monthly to 3,000 elderly citizens during the same period.
The payments specified for differently-abled individuals, CKDU patients and elderly citizens will be distributed from January 2025 to June 2025, inclusive of both months.
All payments to beneficiaries identified through the welfare beneficiary list will be processed under the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Payment Scheme, effective from January 2025.