Relief package

The package carries with it a stigma of confusion as to who, where and how one can be supplemented through it

Difficult times demand difficult decisions. In an attempt to mitigate the hardships of people at the hands of a break-neck rise in food prices, the government has doled out a relief package for around 130 million people. Throwing open its purse, the gigantic Rs120 billion subsidy is one of the largest in history. The good point is that it will be executed on the Ehsaas module, ensuring that the succour reaches its genuine recipients in a judicious manner. This is a welcome compassionate measure as the government too finds itself in a gridlock between soaring oil prices and a depreciating rupee. By enabling the downtrodden to purchase essential items such as flour, ghee and pulses at 30 per cent lower rates for the next six months, this lifeline allowance is a modest step in making both ends meet.

The relief pattern underscores the importance of two square meals at a bearable cost. But this is not enough. The PM’s acknowledgment that 20 million families are in need of state patronage to sail across this tough tide is laudable, and inadvertently confirms his synopsis of a welfare state. It is also a good omen that formal statistics and a concrete databank has enabled Ehsaas cash support to be a success story, which dispenses Rs260 billion annually among 12 million families. Likewise, initiatives such as the Kamyab Pakistan with a funding of Rs1,400 billion for various self-business schemes with interest-free loans to four million families is worth eulogising. All these efforts in the form of institutional supplementaries are meant for easing the crunch of economic downslide, and this is what the Prime Minister pointed out in his address to the nation in all humility.

The relief package, nonetheless, carries with it a stigma of confusion as to who, where and how one can be supplemented through it. While it targets the lower strata of society whose monthly income is less than Rs30,000, something serious is in need of being done for the middle class, who form a major chunk of cash-starved segment as they are either salaried or rely on small businesses. Ameliorating their lot, too, will push the economy upward and lead to progression.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2021.

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