Ehsaas emergency cash budget raised to Rs203b

Islamabad : The government has expanded the Ehsaas emergency cash target to reach out to around 16.9 million deserving families with an increased budget of Rs203 billion. Initially, the programme was launched on April 9 with a budget of Rs144 billion for 12 million beneficiaries.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the PM’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar said, “The programme is fully transparent, rule and merit based, and apolitical. Sindh gains the most from this programme, which shows the apolitical nature of programme,” Dr. Nishtar stated, thanking Prime Minister Imran Khan for his support.

For emergency cash payments, the digital capabilities developed over the past year as part of Ehsaas strategy have positively been adapted. Requests were sought through an SMS short code service; data analytics enabled eligibility ascertainment, using unique national identification numbers and drawing on the National Socioeconomic Registry and wealth proxies (travel, taxes, billing, assets ownership data and government employment status), and payments are biometrically verified.