ISLAMABAD: Rs 171.88 billion was disbursed to 9.1 million beneficiaries under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) till March 31 this year, in the outgoing financial year 2021-22 (when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was in power), reveals Economic Survey 2021-22.
This amount includes Rs163.93 billion unconditional cash transfer (UCT) and Rs7.96 billion conditional cash transfer (CCT).
In the last financial year 2020-21, Rs174.97 billion were disbursed to seven million BISP beneficiaries including Rs169.40 billion UCT and Rs5.57 billion CCT, the Economic Survey reveals.
Keeping in view the increase in economic hardships due to the third wave of the Covid-19, second phase of Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme was launched in June 2021, the survey recalls.
As of March 30, this year, an amount of Rs30.18 billion was disbursed to 2.50 million additional beneficiaries (other than UCT beneficiaries) – Rs12,000- per beneficiary— to eligible married women having valid computerised national identity cards (CNICs), according to the Economic Survey.
Since its inception (in 2008), the BISP has managed to disburse Rs1,326.27 billion to 71.91 million beneficiaries, the government document reveals.
The survey says that Pakistan’s poverty reduction efforts have been widely acknowledged worldwide. It cites the World Bank’s report “Global Social Protection Responses to Covid-19” that ranks Pakistan fourth globally in terms of the number of people covered and third globally in terms of the percentage of population covered amongst those that covered over 100 million people.
The WB has stated that only “selected countries have attained impressive six-digit levels” in this regard. Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash is one of them that demonstrated how cash transfer programmes can be deployed to counter socioeconomic fallouts due to external shocks like Covid-19 which present a long-term predicament, the Economic Survey reads.
“The approach can also address rising inequality and advance attainment of SDGs in a post Covid-19 world. Pakistan is striving to make progress towards sustainable development goals (SDGs) amidst challenges of ensuring quality education, gender equality, skill development, health and sanitation, infrastructure development and job creation,” the Economic Survey reads.
Pakistan is committed to alleviating poverty in line with the SDGs target Goal-1 “no poverty” in all its manifestations everywhere by 2030, the document adds.
Planning Commission’s poverty estimation is based on the cost of basic need approach (CBN) estimated poverty line at Rs3,757.85 per adult equivalent per month.
According to this methodology, 21.9 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line in FY2019 as compared to 24.3 per cent in FY 2016 as per the latest household integrated economic survey 2018-19 used for the poverty estimation.
Poverty in both rural and urban areas has also declined as the poverty headcount of 11.0 per cent in urban and 28.2 per cent in rural areas is estimated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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