The government will not allow the provincial and local governments to dole out social security allowances including old age allowance. It has registered a bill in the parliament that allows only the central government to increase the allowances, with the local governments getting to just hand over the allowances to the recipients.
Different local bodies including the Kathmandu Metropolitan City had decided to increase social security allowances including allowance for the senior citizens immediately after the local elections last year.
"Provincial and local governments will not provide additional social security allowances for the groups to which Nepal government already provides," the bill reads.
The bill states that the central government will provide social security allowances to elderly, impoverished, people with disabilities, helpless single women, ethnicities on the verge of extinction among others.
The bill also has a provision preventing a single person from getting allowance in more than one heads. The central government will provide the funds for allowances through the budget, and the local governments will hand over the same to the recipients.
