ISLAMABAD: Meeting of the Ehsaas Rashan Riayat Steering Committee was convened on Tuesday under the chair of Senator Dr Sania Nishtar.

The meeting commenced with the briefing on the roll out progress of Ehsaas Rashan Riayat. The steering committee was informed that the Ehsaas Rashan Registration website received 700 million hits, since the registration opened in the first phase. Overall, 19.5 million applications were received out of which 9.3 million were those of unique families under the first phase of registrations.

“Applications of the registered families are currently going through data analytics. Those whose eligibility has been determined are being sent 8171 confirmation messages in a phased manner. Also, eligible families have already started availing the Ehsaas Rashan subsidy from the network of 7,978 Utility Stores and National Bank of Pakistan’s (NBP) authorised kiryana retailers,” stated Dr Sania. Members of the committee took targeting decisions in line with the decision of federal cabinet to support low-income families through the targeted subsidies programme of Ehsaas. Revising the eligibility criteria, the committee agreed to change the family income threshold to a certain level so that maximum number of deserving families could benefit from the programme.

Under the second phase of registration, Ehsaas SMS service has also recently been reopened to register low-income families for Ehsaas Rashan Riayat programme. Families earning below Rs. 50,000 a month can self-register by sending their CNIC number to 8171.

The steering committee has the mandate to oversee the roll out of the Ehsaas Rashan Riayat. Under the stewardship of the steering committee, a project management unit (PMU) has also been established within the division. PMU will provide oversight over the project’s fiscal management, monitoring and evaluation, and policy. The Ehsaas Rashan portal is also open to register kiryana retailers.

The Ehsaas Rashan Riayat programme offers 30 per cent targeted subsidy for 20 million families on the purchase of flour, pulses, cooking oil or ghee every month. The programme is funded jointly by the federal and provincial governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022