All possible steps being taken to help small-income groups : Farrukh Habib

FAISALABAD, Nov 06 (APP):Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Farrukh Habib Saturday said government has taken substantial steps to facilitate low income groups and destitute people as 120 billion rupees have been allocated to issue Ehsas Ration Cards to 12 million deserving families.

He was talking to media after a ceremony arranged by Red Crescent Society on Saturday to award certificates to the volunteers for outstanding performance during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state minister said that corona pandemic badly hit the world economy and pushed it to become negative and acutely lacklustre,adding that fortunately Pakistan’s economy remained stable and showed growth during this pandemic due to pragmatic policies of the PTI government.

He cited that prices of edible oil and petroleum products got doubled at global level.” Petrol price rose from 40 dollars per barrel to 85 dollars per barrel. “Since we import these goods, therefore we have to bear this”. However, the government will immediately reduce prices of daily use commodities to give more relief to the people as soon as reduction in global inflation was witnessed, he added.

He said that GDP of major world powers including UK ,USA as well as India went negative but Pakistan’s GDP remained higher than 4%.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan opted to adopt smart lockdown policy as 40 percent of the country’s population lives in poverty.

Farrukh Habib said that despite corona pandemic, Pakistan recorded exports of 25.4 billion dollar which was highest in the history. Similarly, Pakistan’s textile exports were more than 6 billion dollars in last 4 months. The IT exports recorded 42% increase while stock exchanges witnessed tremendous growth in banking, textile, petroleum, cement, energy and other sectors, he highlighted.

He said that loans amounting to Rs.450 billion were provided to industrialists and businessmen through banks which were used to install most modern machinery and it will help in increasing national exports by reducing cost of production.

He said the government framed new policy for loan defaulters and facilitated them in repayment. “Now for the first time in the history of Pakistan, Small & Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) were being provided collateral-free loans up to Rs.10 million”, he added.

The state minister said that Ehsaas program is considered as 4th best program among 3400 welfare programs of the world. The PPP had allocated Rs. 70 billion for Benazir Income Support Program, while PML-N had earmarked Rs.100 billion for it. “However, we, despite lack of resources, allocated Rs. 250 billion for Ehsaas program so that maximum relief could be provided to poor people”.

He said that the government was providing loans to homeless people so that they could build their own houses and in this regard 57,000 applications were received so far.

“Loans of Rs. 80 billion have been approved for 23,000 applicants and out of it, Rs.19 billion has so far been disbursed”, he added.

He said that Insaf Health Cards were distributed among all families in Azad Kashmir and KPK as well as Sahiwal and DG Khan Divisions,adding this facility will be provided to each family in Punjab by end of December. The card holder family will be entitled to get free medical treatment costing upto Rs.1 million per annum.

He further said that sale of imported sugar at Rs. 90 per kg was also being ensured through district governments heads.