Islamabad, October 25, (APP):State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry Wednesday informed the Senate that the government had made 300 percent increase in the budget of Benazir Income Support Programme and Pakistan Baitul- Mall (PBM).
In the question hour, he said allocation for BISP had increased to Rs 121 billion from Rs.43 billion while allocation for Bait-ul-Maal had increased upto Rs.6 billion
He said the scope and outreach of the on-going poverty alleviation program like BISP, Baitul Maal, PM Health insurance program, PM Youth initiative etc is extended to cover more people with higher allocations during 2017-18.
The outreach of the BISP is now 5.7 million households which are much higher than just 3.7 million households in 2012-13. It is providing additional support to benefit around 12.5 million people below the poverty line, he maintained. .
The minister said, the size of the national PSDP has been increased by 37.3 percent to enhance provision of the public goods and creation of opportunities for the poor strata.
Multidimensional Poverty incidence in Pakistan has declined during 2013 and 2015 from 40.8 percent to 38.8 percent.
