Islamabad:The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved Rs29.72 billion to provide cash assistance to 3.725 million applicants under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme.
The approval was granted, irrespective of provincial, regional and district quota, in ECC meeting held here on Friday with Prime Minister’s Advisor on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair. The ECC allowed the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to spend Rs29.72 billion from its allocated budget of Rs200 billion for 2020-21 for providing cash transfers of Rs12,000 per beneficiary.
The meeting was told that 3.151 million applicants who had applied for assistance through the SMS, were found eligible under the approved criteria but these applicants could not be provided assistance on account of provincial and district quotas. The ECC was told that the Punjab government had already agreed to provide assistance to 700,000 of the applicants identified through SMS.