A total of 86,709 religious institutions across Bangladesh will come under the state honorarium scheme in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The institutions include 82,656 mosques, 3,000 temples, 752 Buddhist monasteries and 301 churches. A total of 256,074 religious leaders working at these institutions will benefit from the scheme.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is expected to formally inaugurate the programme this month.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting of a cell formed to implement the government’s election manifesto by introducing monthly honorariums and training-based welfare programmes for imams, muezzins, khadims and people working at other places of worship.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Public Administration, with the rank of minister, and cell chairman Md Ismail Jabiullah. State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shah Alam, Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament from Shariatpur-3 Mia Nuruddin Ahmed Apu, MP from Gaibandha-4 Mohammad Shamim Kaisar, Religious Affairs Secretary Munsi Alauddin Al Azad, Social Welfare Secretary Dr Mohammad Abu Yusuf and other members of the cell attended the meeting.

Under the decision, 15 mosques will be selected from each union for the honorarium scheme in the 2026-27 fiscal year. In municipalities, four mosques will be selected from each ward of Class-A municipalities, three from each ward of Class-B municipalities and two from each ward of Class-C municipalities. Six mosques will be selected from each ward of city corporations.

Five temples will be selected from each upazila during the current fiscal year. Two temples will be selected from each Class-A municipality and one from each municipality of other categories. The remaining temples will be selected at the union level. The number of Buddhist monasteries and churches will be determined at a rate of 25 percent on a district-by-district basis.

Under the programme, imams of selected mosques, priests of temples, heads of Buddhist monasteries and pastors of churches will receive a monthly honorarium of Tk 5,000 each.

Muezzins of mosques, temple caretakers, deputy heads of Buddhist monasteries and assistant pastors of churches will receive Tk 3,000 each per month, while mosque khadims will receive Tk 2,000.

The honorarium will be transferred directly to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT).

The government has allocated Tk 11 billion in the current fiscal year’s budget for providing monthly honorariums to religious leaders working at mosques and other places of worship.

As a result, around one-fourth of the country’s religious institutions will come under the state benefit scheme this fiscal year. The government plans to gradually bring all religious institutions in the country under the scheme over the next three fiscal years.

It may be mentioned that, as part of implementing the government’s election manifesto, a pilot project was launched in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Under the project, 13,949 people, including imams, muezzins, khadims, priests and temple caretakers working at 6,017 selected religious institutions across the country, received honorariums for the first time.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inaugurated the programme at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka on March 14, before completing one month in office.