ISLAMABAD  -   Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Dr. Sania Nishtar Friday said Ehsaas is now introducing a new “supply-driven” model to enroll all Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries in the Rashan Riayat programme to ensure benefit to 20 million families.

She was speaking while chairing the third meeting of the Steering Committee for Ehsaas Rashan Riayat took place today at the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD).  Dr. Sania said, “Under this new model, all families currently surveyed in the Ehsaas National Socioeconomic Registry database and under Proxy Means Test 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 a new supply-driven model for implementation of Ehsaas Rashan Riayat programme to ensure that the programme benefits 20 million deserving families.

All members of eligible families will be sent an SMS. Any member of the family with a CNIC and SIM registered in the name of a family member can then avail of the subsidy.

After the first transaction, this family member’s details will be locked and only they will be able to conduct future subsidy-related transactions for 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 programme received 33 million registrations under the two phases.

The programme has been ongoing since January 31, 2022, with nearly 4.25 million families from phase-I of registrations having been verified and made eligible to avail of the targeted commodity subsidies at more than 12,000 participating Kiryana and utility stores across Pakistan. In addition, 23,027 Ehsaas Rashan Riayat stores have been physically verified.

For phase II of the programme, over 15 million applications have been received via Ehsaas 8171 SMS registration service. These applications will undergo further verification checks for assessing their eligibility under the programme.

Through Rashan Riayat, a targeted subsidy of 30% a month will be granted to 20 million deserving families for the purchase of flour, pulses, cooking oil, and ghee. To checkmate abuse and corruption, the programme has been made fully digitized.

Muhammad Ali Shahzad, Secretary PASSD; Ismat Tahira, Secretary BISP; Captain (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Nawaz, Additional Secretary PASSD; Syed Muazzam Ali, Additional Secretary BISP; Ahmed Jan Malik, Joint Secretary PASSD; Naveed Akbar, Director General, Ehsaas Conditional Cash Transfers; Meer Anwar, Director General Technology, Ehsaas joined the meeting alongside Additional Secretary Industries and Production; Additional Secretary Finance; CEO Punjab Social Protection Authority; and senior officials and representatives from Punjab Secretariat; Social Welfare Department KP; and National Bank of Pakistan.

Ehsaas Rashan Riayat is a precision-target system of subsidies delivery focusing on deserving beneficiaries to provide financial assistance for the purchase of essential commodities at a discount through digitally processed transactions.

Fully digitized systems built for the programme will pave the way for the government to switch from untargeted to targeted commodity subsidies.