ISLAMABAD: The federal government’s budget allocation under Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has seen an increase of 40 percent with the allocation of Rs364 billion in the upcoming financial year 2022-23.

In the outgoing FY 2021-22, former federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) allocated Rs 260 million, increasing it by 30 per cent compared to previous FY 2020-21 when Rs 200 billion were allocated to BISP.

In the outgoing FY budget documents, BISP budget was shown at Rs 246 billion but was later increased to Rs 260 billion.

BISP’s budgetary allocation for upcoming fiscal year, starting on July 1, suggests that out of Rs 364 billion, Rs360 billion have been earmarked under operating expenses.

Rs171.88bn given to 9.1m beneficiaries under BISP

Rs 3.57 billion have been allocated under the head of employees-related expenses including Rs 96.51 million for salaries (Rs 756 million for officers’ salaries and Rs 209 million for staff salaries), Rs 20.6 billion under allowances including Rs 2.1 billion regular allowances and Rs 428 million other allowances.

Separately, Rs 2.2 billion have been allocated for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD) showing an increasing of only 2.3 per cent in its budget in comparison to FY 2021-22.

Of this amount, Rs 126 million have been allocated for the employees including Rs 56 million for salaries (Rs 33 million for salaries of officers and Rs 23 million for salaries of staff), Rs 70 million for allowances (Rs 63 million for regular allowances and Rs 6.5 million for other allowances), Rs 60 million under operating expenses, Rs 7.3 million under employees retirement benefits, Rs 3.1 million under grants, subsidies and write off loans, Rs 2 billion under transfers, Rs 0.93 million under physical assets and Rs 2.8 million under repairs and maintenance.

In the outgoing FY 2021-22, Rs 2.15 billion were allocated for PASSD, showing a negligible increase of only 0.13 percent compared to PASSD’s budget of Rs 2.152 billion allocated in previous FY 2020-21.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022