ISLAMABAD – Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviationand Social Protection, Dr. Sania Nishtar Friday said Ehsaas is nowintroducing a new “supply-driven” model to enroll all Ehsaas Kafaalatbeneficiaries in the Rashan Riayat programme to ensure benefit to 20million families.
She was speaking while chairing the third meeting of the Steering Committeefor Ehsaas Rashan Riayat took place today at the Poverty Alleviation andSocial Safety Division (PASSD).
Dr. Sania said, “Under this new model, all families currently surveyed inthe Ehsaas National Socioeconomic Registry database and under Proxy MeansTest 44 will be automatically made eligible for the Ehsaas Rashan Riayat,without them having to register for the programme.”
Members of the steering committee discussed and approved the adoption of anew supply-driven model for implementation of Ehsaas Rashan Riayatprogramme to ensure that the programme benefits 20 million deservingfamilies. All members of eligible families will be sent an SMS. Any memberof the family with a CNIC and SIM registered in the name of a family membercan then avail of the subsidy.
After the first transaction, this family member’s details will be lockedand only they will be able to conduct future subsidy-related transactionsfor the family.
Under the demand-based model, the Ehsaas Rashan website has received Rs.1.5 billion hits since the launch of program. Overall, the programmereceived 33 million registrations under the two phases.
The programme has been ongoing since January 31, 2022, with nearly 4.25million families from phase-I of registrations having been verified andmade eligible to avail of the targeted commodity subsidies at more than12,000 participating Kiryana and utility stores across Pakistan. Inaddition, 23,027 Ehsaas Rashan Riayat stores have been physically verified.
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For phase II of the programme, over 15 million applications have beenreceived via Ehsaas 8171 SMS registration service. These applications willundergo further verification checks for assessing their eligibility underthe programme.
Through Rashan Riayat, a targeted subsidy of 30% a month will be granted to20 million deserving families for the purchase of flour, pulses, cookingoil, and ghee. To checkmate abuse and corruption, the programme has beenmade fully digitized.
Muhammad Ali Shahzad, Secretary PASSD; Ismat Tahira, Secretary BISP;Captain (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Nawaz, Additional Secretary PASSD; Syed MuazzamAli, Additional Secretary BISP; Ahmed Jan Malik, Joint Secretary PASSD;Naveed Akbar, Director General, Ehsaas Conditional Cash Transfers; MeerAnwar, Director General Technology, Ehsaas joined the meeting alongsideAdditional Secretary Industries and Production; Additional SecretaryFinance; CEO Punjab Social Protection Authority; and senior officials andrepresentatives from Punjab Secretariat; Social Welfare Department KP; andNational Bank of Pakistan.
Ehsaas Rashan Riayat is a precision-target system of subsidies deliveryfocusing on deserving beneficiaries to provide financial assistance for thepurchase of essential commodities at a discount through digitally processedtransactions.
Fully digitized systems built for the programme will pave the way for thegovernment to switch from untargeted to targeted commodity subsidies.
