ISLAMABAD: The annual budget of 364 billion rupees, allocated by the Finance Division for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), for the current financial year 2022-23, includes programme’s operational cost of Rs360 billion as well as “general and administrative cost” of Rs4 billion, the upper house of parliament was informed on Friday.
Of this budget, Rs240 billion have been allocated for Benazir Kafaalat Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) Programme, reads a written reply from Poverty Alleviation Minister Shazia Marri that was shared during question hour on the maiden day of the 324th Senate session.
Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani presided over the sitting.
As much as Rs48 billion have been allocated for Fuel Subsidy Scheme, Rs35 billion for Benazir Taleemi Wazaif (Waseela-e-Taleem), Rs21 billion for Benazir Nashonuma Nutritional Programme, Rs9.2 billion as Undergraduate Scholarship Programme, Rs4 billion as administrative and general expenditure, Rs2.6 billion as direct cost of cash transfers, Rs1.7 billion for National Socio Economic Registry (NSER) Project, and Rs1 billion for procurement of assets, the reply stated in response to a question posed by Zeeshan Khanzada from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The PTI lawmaker sought from the minister the scheme-wise details of the BISP’s budget and the details of the mechanism of adding/removing BISP beneficiaries.
Other major allocations include Rs604 million as payments for services rendered, Rs180 million for media advertisements and publicity and Rs150 million for Policy Research Unit (PRU).
Marri, in the written reply, stated the BISP uses NSER data for its unconditional and conditional programme targeting. The NSER data collection is based on a scientifically-designed Poverty Scorecard Survey Questionnaire which is then analysed through a technique known as Proxy Means Test (PMT), the minister added.
Based on this approach, the score of each household is being calculated which lies between PMT 0-100. Currently, all married women of households falling under the PMT cut-off score of 32 are eligible beneficiaries of Benazir Kafalat Programme, Marri said in her written reply.
State Law Minister Shahadat Awan said Rs434.43 million were incurred on the use of a helicopter by the former prime minister Imran Khan in three years.
BehramandT angi from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) criticised the PTI chief and used apparently inappropriate words for him and his family members over the alleged use of official helicopter.
This attracted strong protest from the opposition lawmakers.
“Who is bearing the cost of transporting proclaimed offenders in airplanes?” deplored Leader of the Opposition in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem.
“Cargo planes are reserved for the proclaimed offenders,” he added.
He said PTI and Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) proved that power was not important in the larger national interest. The provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are being dissolved that would pave way for general elections, the opposition leader opined. The house was adjourned till Monday.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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