Sri Lanka plans to spend $680 million per year on a welfare programme for 2.3 million of its poor people starting July, an official said on Tuesday, its first such move after securing an IMF bailout in March as it emerges from a financial crisis.

The programme will include $200 million in support from the World Bank, Welfare Benefits Board official A.R. Deshapriya told reporters, adding that beneficiaries would receive amounts ranging from 2,500 rupees to 15,000 rupees.

Reuters reported on Monday that the World Bank was likely to approve $700 million in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka at its next board meeting on June 28, out of which $200 million would be to assist the poor. ($1 = 306.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Writing by Shivam Patel; Editing by Krishna N. Das)