ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government will increase amount for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in the budget for 2015-16.
He said this, while talking to country chief of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Richard Montgomery. The minister said that the contributions made by donors and development partners had helped in expanding the programme. Under the programme, a monthly stipend of $15 is provided to each of about 4.8 million deserving families.
More than $2.9 billion has been disbursed to date under the programme, and about 93 per cent of the beneficiaries receive cash through technology-based payment mechanisms.
The government planned to reach 5.5 million families in the next financial year, sources said. Dar and Mr Montgomery discussed expanding the outreach of the BISP.
The DFID has been supporting the BISP right from the beginning. It approved a World Bank-managed trust fund in 2009 to support the test phase of the Poverty Score Card and set up the initial organisational and operational arrangements for implementing the BISP project. It provided nine million pounds for the purpose.
