Colombo, Jun 29 (IANS): The Sri Lankan government disbursed nearly 12 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($39 million) to the bank accounts of people selected as beneficiaries under Aswesuma welfare benefit payment program, the President's Media Division (PMD) said.

The PMD said on Friday that money was deposited in the accounts of 622,495 beneficiaries for payments due in June, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the first phase of the programme, eligible beneficiaries in the vulnerable category received 5,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($11) monthly from July 2023 to March 31, 2024. Those beneficiaries selected under the transitional category received 2,500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5.5) from July 2023 to December 31, 2023.

In response to the current economic situation, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the welfare benefits board to extend the payment period of special allowances for beneficiaries in the transitional and vulnerable categories until December this year, the PMD added.

The existing payment system for the extremely poor and poor categories will continue without changes, the PMD said.

The Sri Lankan government introduced the welfare benefit programme to cover 2.4 million families under different categories because of the difficult economic situation in the country earlier.