ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Friday that the government was planning to conduct a fresh survey during next year to include more deserving people in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
Responding to question, during Question Hour, Parliamentary Secretary, Rana Afzal Khan said that an amount of Rs.315 billion has already been disbursed among more than 5 million beneficiary families upto June 2015 since the inception of the programme in July 2008.
He said that the present government increased expenditures of BISP form Rs.40 billion in 2012-13 to an allocation of Rs75 billion in 2013-14 and then to Rs.97.15 million in 2014-15 and now the allocation has been further enhanced to Rs.102 billion for financial year 2015-16.
He said that the disbursements per family were increased from Rs.1000 to Rs. 1500 and smart cards were given to the vulnerable families through which they were facilitated to draw advances of upto three months.
To a question, he informed the house that the programme was started as the safety mechanism for the poorest of the poor against fuel and food inflation. "So this is not a poverty reduction programme rather it is an income support programme to provide minimum income package to the poor to protect the vulnerable population against chronic and transient poverty," he said.
He said that for the first time the most vulnerable people have an access to a basic safety net programme that has positively impacted their living condition.
The Parliamentary Secretary said that under the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), Rs.18.94 billion has been disbursed to more than 1.1 million beneficiary families up to 30th June 2015 across the country from 2009-10.
He said that the current government has increased the budget of PBM for FY 2015-16 from Rs.2 billion to Rs.4 billion.
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