ISLAMABAD: The government has approved a Rs12,306 million technical supplementary grant (TSG) for the Ministry of Health Services for immunisation programme of more than eight million children under two years of age.

The approval was granted by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on a summary moved by the Ministry of Health that the Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI) is a high-priority initiative of the government which aims to immunise more than eight million children under two years of age against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases. Any break in the immunisation may lead to re-emergence of these diseases in the form of increased mortality and morbidity.

In response to the Finance Division correspondence of 2020, all the provincial governments have conveyed their concurrence that the existing mechanism for pool procurement established under the ECNEC’s decision will continue under recurrent/revenue side from FY 2020-21 onwards.

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Based on the GAVI’s decision letter dated 7th October 2022 and target population conveyed by the provinces, total cost of the vaccines and logistics for the fiscal year 2023-24 has been estimated at Rs22,557.696 million, out of which, Rs21.700.504 million is provincial share, whereas, Rs857.192 million is required to be paid by the federal government. In addition, Rs821.015 million is pending liability of the government of Punjab for the fiscal year 2022-23.

The provinces transferred their share Rs12,036.103 million and Federal Directorate of Immunisation has initiated that procurement process of vaccines and syringes for un-interrupted supply to the provinces. Accordingly, cost estimates from the UNICEF have been obtained for which advance payment is required, therefore, the ECC of the Cabinet is requested to approve TSG of Rs12,036.103 million to the FDI under administrative control of Ministry of NHSR&C for the financial year 2023-24.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024