The Welfare Benefits Board of Sri Lanka will credit June payments under the Aswasuma welfare scheme to first-phase beneficiaries on Thursday (18), with a total of Rs. 10,904,801,250 directly deposited into the bank accounts of 1,373,248 families.
The Board’s Chairman and Commissioner General Nimal Kotawalagedara said arrangements had been completed for the disbursement, which will be made exclusively to first-phase recipients of the cash transfer programme. Funds will flow into the dedicated Aswasuma bank accounts beneficiaries operate at participating banks.
The monthly cycle covers households classified under the first tier of the means-tested scheme, which was redesigned in 2023 to consolidate Sri Lanka’s main poverty-relief instruments under a single registry. Payments to subsequent tiers — covering transitional and vulnerable households — are made on a separate schedule.
The June disbursement is one of the larger monthly outflows under the programme. The scale of the transfer reflects both continued reliance on welfare support during the Middle East–driven cost-of-living surge and the government’s effort to keep poverty-targeted assistance flowing on schedule. The Deputy Minister of Finance has separately said the government is maintaining a Rs. 100 billion three-month relief package to cushion external shocks on household budgets.
