Emergency cash information portal launched

Islamabad:To ensure transparency in the disbursement of Ehsaas Emergency Cash, Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Dr. Sania Nishtar on Friday launched Ehsaas Emergency Cash Information Portal.

Through this portal, any person could get information regarding the number of families benefiting from the programme as well as the total amount disbursed at district and tehsil levels. The portal it will outline the amounts given to partnering banks for disbursements to beneficiaries, and the number of beneficiaries who have taken out money.

Sharing details about the portal, Dr. Nishter said that dashboards in the portal will give details about the number of beneficiaries served in each of the three categories with provincial, district and tehsil wise breakdowns.

“Kafalat beneficiaries are part of Category-I where share of provinces was decided in 2010. In Category-II, share of provinces is based on 2017 census. Share of Sindh in Category-I is highest that is observant of the fact that the programme is being run on merit and without any political influence and considerations,” she added.

The Prime Minister Imran Khan accorded approval to the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Information Portal on April 22, 2020. Ehsaas Emergency Cash operations have been ongoing since April 9, 2020. To-date, overall disbursements of Rs68.885 billion have been made to 5.740 million beneficiaries across the country in categories 1 and 2.

According to 8171 SMS service closure data, requests received for assistance through SMS are 1.46 billion. Requests received through web are 5.6 million. After removing duplication, the number of requests received is 48.2 million. Among the total number of CNIC received along with requests, 2.6 million were invalid. Total number of rejected cases is around 13.7 million. The reasons for rejection included family duplication, wealth profiling analytics, high poverty score in database, high income documented by FBR and unverified CNIC.

Under Ehsaas Emergency Cash program, the government committed to support 12 million families with one time cash assistance of Rs12,000 per family. A total budget of Rs144 billion has been allocated for this purpose.