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A total of 86,709 religious institutions across the country will come under a government honorarium programme in the 2026-27 fiscal year, with 256,074 religious leaders and workers set to get benefit.
The institutions include 82,656 mosques, 3,000 temples, 752 Buddhist monasteries and 301 churches.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is scheduled to formally inaugurate the programme this month, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Monday.
The decision was taken at a recent meeting of a committee formed to introduce monthly honorariums and training-based welfare programmes for imams, muezzins, khadims and people working at other places of worship as part of the government’s election manifesto.
Under the programme, 15 mosques will be selected from each union in the 2026-27 fiscal year.
In municipalities, four mosques will be selected from each ward of ‘A’-class municipalities, three from each ward of ‘B’-class municipalities and two from each ward of ‘C’-class municipalities. Six mosques will be selected from each ward of city corporations.
Five temples will be selected from each upazila. Two temples will be selected from each ‘A’-class 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 basis.
Under the programme, selected imams, priests, Buddhist monastery heads and church priests will receive a monthly honorarium of Tk5,000 each.
Muezzins, temple caretakers, deputy heads of Buddhist monasteries and assistant priests will receive Tk3,000 each, while mosque khadims will receive Tk2,000 per month.
The honorariums will be transferred directly to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts through electronic fund transfer (EFT).
The government has allocated Tk1,100 crore in the current fiscal year’s budget for monthly honorariums for religious leaders working at mosques and other places of worship.
The government plans to bring around one-fourth of the country’s religious institutions under the programme this fiscal year and gradually extend the benefit to all religious institutions over the next three fiscal years.
As part of the implementation of its election manifesto, the government provided honorariums for the first time in the 2025-26 fiscal year under a pilot project to 13,949 religious workers, including imams, muezzins, khadims, priests and temple caretakers, from 6,017 selected religious institutions.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inaugurated the pilot programme at Osmani Memorial Auditorium on March 14, less than a month after forming the government.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs has been implementing various religious welfare programmes, including projects under the Islamic Foundation and other religious welfare trusts.