Daily Times

The Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) has achieved several milestones during the Fiscal Year 2022-23 to provide relief to those living below the poverty line through increasing its budgetary allocations and expanding the scope of different schemes including Benazir Kafalat, Benazir Nashonuma and Benazir Undergraduate Scholarship.

According to the performance report of BISP from FY April 2022-April 2023, the BISP budget was increased from Rs. 235 billion to Rs 400 billion during the period, registering a 70 percent increase. The number of Benazir Kafalat program beneficiaries has increased from 7.6 million to nine million during this year. While the amount of Kafalat stipend has been increased from Rs 7000 per quarter to Rs. 8750 per quarter, registering a 25 per cent increase. The present government has also included Transgender persons in the program without the conditions of poverty score.

Under the Benazir Taleemi Wazaif program which aims at cash transferring to incentivize enrolment of children in schools, the number of enrolled children has been increased from 2.6 million to 7.1 million. The Benazir Nashonuma Program has been expanded from 15 pilot districts to 149 districts across the country while increasing the number of Facilitation Centers up to 487 during the period. Benazir Nashonuma is an initiative of cash transfer to prevent stunting and malnutrition among children. Under this initiative, 0.52 million beneficiaries have been enrolled.

The number of Benazir Scholarships for Undergraduates has been increased from 82,000 to 92,003 during the period. To mitigate the sufferings of flood-affected people, a total of Rs. 70 billion has been disbursed among 2.8 million beneficiaries (Rs. 25,000 per family). Under the Fuel Subsidy initiative, Rs. 16.9 billion has been disbursed among 8.6 million families through giving Rs 2000 per family. The program has also achieved the goal of transition from static to dynamic National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) through establishing 600 registration centers. The NSER aims at real-time update of changes in socio-economic status of households.