The government has decided not to allocate any fund in the upcoming budget for creating jobs for the ultra-poor and for financing small entrepreneurs, said official sources.

‘We will not allocate any fund in the next budget to create jobs for the hardcore poor in the villages as the fund given to the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation is enough to ensure jobs for the rural people,’ said a senior official of finance ministry.

The PKSF, a government-owned organisation, has given the concerned NGOs loans to create jobs for the ultra-poor and finance small entrepreneurs from its two revolving funds, the official added.

He said the PKSF is disbursing loans from two of the revolving funds: Tk 416 crore for creating employment for the ultra-poor and Tk 375 crore for giving loans to small entrepreneurs at a low interest rate.

The PKSF has informed the finance ministry that it has enough funds for the purposes mentioned above.

Sources in the finance ministry said that the government, in order to assist the agriculture-based industries, has decided to raise the concerned fund from the present fiscal year’s Tk 100 crore to Tk 150 crore in the next fiscal year’s budget.

The fund will be disbursed through the specialised government-owned banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Karmasangsthan Bank and Basic Bank.

The government has also decided to keep two funds — Tk 100 crore for agriculture and Tk 200 crore for entrepreneurs in the information technology sector — in the next budget.

The present budget has an allocation of Tk 100 crore each for the entrepreneurs in the agricultural and IT sectors. These two funds, called equity entrepreneur funds, will be operated by the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh though the Bangladesh Bank has administered them since the creation of the funds.

The government has disbursed Tk 570 crore to the agriculture sector and Tk 120 crore to the IT sector since 2002-03, according to the Bangladesh Bank’s 2007-08 annual report.