ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Saturday that the incumbent government’s relief package ‘Sasta Petrol Sasta Diesel’, as announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, would protect poor families from the “storm of inflation” left by the previous government and the recent hike in fuel prices.
During a press conference, the finance minister outlined that the PML-N government’s relief package targets households led by women with a monthly income of less than Rs40,000.
According to Miftah, these women could text their CNIC number to 786 or call the number to receive an additional Rs2,000.
He maintained that the government could not provide complete relief to the people due to budget restraints, but that they did want to provide some salvation.
“The amount of money going towards the programme will also be incorporated in the upcoming budget, to be presented before the National Assembly next month,” Miftah said.
The premier’s new package will also incorporate the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), and BISP recipients need not send their CNIC numbers on the dedicated line as they would automatically receive the money on June 1, he further said.
“Under the package, 14 million households would receive the amount. Rs2,000 will be given in June and will cost the government Rs28 billion,” he detailed, adding that besides the 3.3 million BISP recipients, the package covered 6.7 million households with a poverty score below 37.
He highlighted that the money would be given to the poorest families and would only be handed to the women of the household which he claimed was “the best way”.
According to the finance minister, the money given through the new package amounted to 5% of the income of a household earning less than Rs40,000 per month, and 8% of the income of a household earning Rs31,333 or less per month.
Miftah claimed that the previous government was giving subsidies to the rich and targeting the poor as 40% of the richest households in Pakistan used up 85% of all petrol supplies and the subsidies were on petrol prices.
He stated that according to Shaukat Tarin’s – the finance minister under former premier Imran Khan – deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “all subsidies were to be removed, the tax levy increased to Rs30 and a sales tax imposed to raise the price of diesel to Rs300 per litre and the price of petrol to Rs 70 per litre”.