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Rs26.5 billion Ehsaas supplementary budget approved
ECC decides to offer Rs12,000 per family to 4 million households on one-time basis
ISLAMABAD:
The government has decided to give one-time cash assistance of Rs12,000 per family to additional 4 million households and approved a supplementary budget of Rs26.5 billion for this purpose.
Headed by Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday allowed expanding the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to 8 million families under the second phase of the Ehsaas emergency programme.
The total cost of additional one-time assistance for the 4 million families is Rs48 billion. However, the BISP could not spend Rs22 billion against its current year’s allocation, which will now be diverted to the second phase of the Ehsaas emergency programme, said the finance ministry.
The PTI-government has accorded a high priority to develop long-neglected labour-intensive sectors, generate more job opportunities, speed up documentation of the informal sector and raise tax revenues.
Much of the effort is focused on providing access to subsidised bank credit to sectors such as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (including self-employment of youth) and housing and related construction industry. The latest move is to provide collateral-free loans worth Rs60 billion to SMEs over the next three years.
The SMEs are largely in the informal sector surviving on work or craft skills with very little or no tangible assets to offer as collateral sought by lenders to advance loans.