Daily Times

The budgetary allocations for the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) has been increased up to Rs. 364 billion from Rs. 250 billion for the year 2022-23. This was announced by the Federal Minister of Finance, Miftah Ismail during the budget speech for the year 2022-23 in the National Assembly on Friday. An amount of Rs.12 billion has been allocated to provide subsidy to the Utility Stores Corporation for ensuring provision of the basic commodities to the consumers on less rates while an additional Rs. five billion has been allocated to give subsidy during the holy month of Ramzan. The scope of Benazir Education Stipend Program will be expanded to 10 million children for which Rs. 35 billion has been earmarked in the budget. A total of Rs. 266 billion has been earmarked to provide cash transfer facility to nine million families (presently seven million families enrolled) under the Benazir Kafalat Program. Rs. nine billion has been allocated in the budget for providing scholarships to 10,000 more students under Benazir Undergraduate Scholarship Program. An amount of 21.5 billion will be utilized for expanding the scope of Benazir Nashonuma Program nationwide while Rs. six billion has been allocated for the treatment of deserving patients under the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal schemes. Up to 9 million underprivileged families would be included in Benazir Kafalat Cash Transfer Program for which the government has earmarked Rs226 billion. It aims to expand the scope of the Waseela-e-Taleem Program to 100 million children and more than Rs35 billion have been allocated for this purpose. The government will also award Benazir Undergraduate Scholarship to 10,000 additional students compared to last year and Rs9 billion will be spent for achieving this. The government has announced expanding Benazir Nashonuma Program to all districts of Pakistan, and it plans to spend Rs21.5 billion on it. For free treatment and financial aid to the underprivileged class, the government has allocated Rs6 billion for Pakistan Bait ul Maal. The government has separately earmarked Rs12 billion to provide targeted subsidy at the utility stores amid the storm of inflation after an increase in the prices of fuel products as well as gas and electricity tariffs. Apart from this, the government has also allocated an additional Rs5 billion for the Ramadan package.