ISLAMABAD - The Federal Government has announced a hike of 27 per cent in the allocation for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the next fiscal year taking it from Rs 450 billion to Rs 593 billion during the upcoming fiscal 2024-25.
It has been proposed that the budget of BISP to be jacked up to Rs 593 billion during the upcoming fiscal 2024-25, according to the budget speech presented by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue in the National Assembly. The finance minister said that BISP possesses the status of a cornerstone of the country’s social welfare measures from which millions of families receive cash assistance. Aurangzeb said that the incumbent coalition government aims to provide maximum assistance to the weak segments of the Pakistani society, while adding that the financial aid of the weak segments under BISP will be continue. He announced that the federal government decided 27% hike in the BISP allocations by up to Rs593 billion in the next fiscal year.
While announcing BISP new programmes, the finance minister said that for promoting economic inclusion and improving financial status of nationals, the federal government is going to launch a new poverty graduation and skills’ development programme under the BISP’s flag. Additionally, the government also plans to introduce a hybrid social protection programme for promoting financial self-sufficiency, he revealed. Giving the details for the BISP allocations in the budget, the minister said that under the Kafalat programme, the number of individuals who are getting benefits from the social welfare programme will be increased from 9.3 million to 10 million. The cash assistance will also be hiked for protecting the deserving families from inflation impacts, he added. Similarly, under Benazir Taleemi Wazaif, the federal government decided to register 1 million more children from underprivileged families in the conditional cash transfer programme aimed at promoting education.
Under the Benazir Nashonuma, the government will include 500,000 more families to the programme aim at providing nutritional support to mothers and children and stopping “stunting” of children during first 1,000 days after their birth, the finance minister announced. It is worth to note that during the previous budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 the then PDM coalition government had increased the BISP allocation by 12.5% or Rs 50 billion taking it from Rs 400bln to Rs 450 billion.
