‘Ehsaas Ration’ programme: Social welfare officers being mobilized for grocery stores’ registration with NBP

LAHORE: To implement the federal government’s ‘Ehsaas Ration’ programme, the Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal (SW&BM) Punjab has started mobilizing ‘Social Welfare Officers’ from across the province for the registration of grocery stores with the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) for reimbursement of payments.

“In the first phase, we will register 20 grocery stores with NBP in each union council (of Lahore) from where the needy people would be able to purchase subsidized rations once a month,” disclosed SW&BM Director General Mudasser Riaz Malik while addressing an online meeting of divisional and district deputy directors meeting at his office on Tuesday.

Malik, who is also the focal person of the Punjab government’s Ehsaas Ration programme, said the government would provide subsidy on flour, ghee, oil and pulses to low-income families. “The subsidy amount will be transferred to the shopkeeper’s account within 48 hours,” he added.

To become a part of the programme, the grocery stores are required to first open a bank account with the NBP, he said, adding that all the commissioners have issued instructions to their subordinate deputy commissioners to mobilize the officers for the registration of the subsidy programme. NBP Senior Vice President on Digital Banking Farhan J Durrani also joined the meeting and discussed various aspects of the registration process.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021