Utility stores stop providing subsidised items to BISP beneficiaries

ISLAMABAD: The Utility Stores Corporation has stopped providing commodities on subsidised prices to the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) beneficiaries.

The Utility Stores Corporation officials said that they received orders from the government to stop the sale of subsidised items. They said that sale under the Prime Minister’s Relief Package would remain closed until further orders.

Under the Prime Minister’s Relief Package, subsidy was being given to BISP beneficiaries on five basic commodities -- sugar, ghee, flour, rice, pulses at the utility stores. Now normal rates are being charged.

On August 15, the ECC approved the Prime Minister’s Relief Package of Rs50 billion for the Utility Stores Corporation, under which the beneficiaries of BISP would get essential food items including flour, sugar, ghee, pulses from the utility stores at discounted rates. Federal Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain, when approached, told this correspondent that the PM’s relief package has been temporarily postponed, so that a mechanism can be set up to bring transparency. The relief package of Rs50 billion would fully benefit the common man, he added.