A sum of Rs 1164 million has been earmarked in the budget for 2011-12 for social protection, against the revised allocation of Rs 2940 million for 2010-11, registering a decrease of Rs 1776 million. The budgetary allocation for social protection in 2011-12 is Rs 299 million lower, compared to the budget estimates of Rs 1,463 million for 2010-11.
The budget for 2011-12 has also earmarked Rs 50 billion for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) outside the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) against Rs 50 billion earmarked in budget 2010-11 and revised downward to Rs 35 billion. The 2011-12 budget earmarks a grant of Rs 2 billion for Bait-ul-Maal (exactly the same as envisaged in the budget for 2010-11).
However, the revised budget for social protection in 2010-11 was Rs 1.4 billion. The budget 2011-12 proposals show very high cost to Pakistan's social protection programme: 2.9 billion rupees in the revised estimates for 2010-11 inclusive of administration cost (as well as other costs of delivery). Next year, the government intends to bring this down to 1.2 billion rupees.