ISLAMABAD: An amount of 385.64 billion rupees of the total budgeted amount of Rs 598.72 billion was disbursed to 9.87 million beneficiaries under Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) till 31 March 2025, so noted the 2024-25 Economic Survey.
The disbursed amount included Rs328.47 billion unconditional cash transfer (UCT) and Rs57.17 billion conditional cash transfer (CCT), reveals the Economic Survey for the last financial year 2024-25, issued by the Finance Ministry on Monday.
In the last financial year 2023-24, Rs 454.55 billion of the total budgetedRs471.68 billion was disbursed to 9.30 million BISP beneficiaries including Rs360.17 billion UCT and Rs 94.38 billion CCT, the Economic Survey reveals.
Overall, since its inception (in the year 2008), BISP has disbursed a total of Rs2,607.81 billion in grants, including Rs 276.09 billion under CCT, and Rs 2,331.72 billion under UCT, benefiting a total of 9.87 million individuals, states the government document.
According to the Economic Survey, from 1 July 2024 to 31 March 2025, a total of 6.9 million existing beneficiary households were re-surveyed through Dynamic Registration Centres (DRCs) across the country under BISP’s flagship Kafaalat UCT programme that was launched in 2008 to provide financial assistance to eligible households identified through NSER. “Eligibility is determined using the Proxy Means Test (PMT), with a cut-off score currently set at 32 (or 37 for families with disabled members). The cash grant has gradually increased from Rs 3,000 per quarter in FY 2009 to Rs 13,500 per quarter in FY 2025,” reads the document.
The annual budget for Kafaalat Programme in FY 2025 stood at Rs 461 billion. An amount of Rs 328.47 billion was disbursed to 7.87 million Kafaalat beneficiaries during July-March in the outgoing fiscal year, suggests the government data.
The National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) plays a vital role in shaping evidence-based policies and designing public sector development programmes by offering comprehensive socio-economic data, notes the Economic Survey.
The NSER supports key initiatives like BISP and various social safety net programmes managed by the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety (PASS), while also assisting the private sector in crafting targeted programmes, the Survey states.
“In 2024-25, NSER data was accessed by 32 public and private organisations, underscoring its importance as a trusted source for enhancing social protection and development programmes, particularly for marginalised communities. During this period, significant efforts were made to improve the NSER Dynamic Registry, including updating household data, enhancing the Dynamic NSER Android app to ensure better privacy protection, expanding registration coverage, and deploying mobile registration vans to reach remote areas in Balochistan and Sindh,” according to the Economic Survey.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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