BISP allocations enhanced by Rs 114bn for 2022-23

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government in its first budget presented by finance minister Miftah Ismail announced an increase of Rs 114 billion for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the fiscal year 2022-23.

The BISP is the main programme of the government that contributes to the alleviation of poverty in society. The budgetary allocation for EHSAS/BISP programme for the year 2021-22 was Rs 250 billion, which has been enhanced to Rs 364 billion for BISP for the fiscal year 2022-23, the Federal Finance Minister announced in the budget speech Friday afternoon.

The name ‘EHSAS’ was coined by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Government during the PTI regime which served as an umbrella under which all the public welfare projects such as ‘EHSAS Naujawan’, ‘Langar khana’ and ‘Panagah’ have been left out.

Last year, BISP, which was also under the umbrella of the ‘EHSAS Programme’, received Rs 150 billion out of a total budget of Rs 260 billion was allocated for EHSAS/BISP programme in budget 2021-22.

Miftah Ismail announced that next year, 9 million families will be available for Benazir Kafalat Cash Transfer Programme for which Rs 266 billion have been earmarked.

In addition to this, the Benazir Education Scholarship Programme will be expanded to 10 million children. For this purpose over Rs 35 billion have been earmarked for the next budget.

Another 10 thousand students will be granted Benazir Undergraduate Scholarships for which Rs 9 billion have been earmarked. The Benazir Nourishment Programme will be extended to all districts which will have a total cost of around Rs 21.5 billion.

Besides all this, Rs 6 billion have been earmarked in the budget 2022-23 for Pakistan Baitul Maal for medical care and financial help for the deserving people.

In addition to the budgetary allocations for various programmes being run under BISP, Miftah Ismail announced that the government has allocated Rs 12 billion for the Utility Stores Corporation to give subsidies on edible items. Another Rs 5 billion has been allocated for the annual ‘Ramzan Package’ to provide relief to the general public at the advent of the holy month of Ramzan.