Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar, SAPM convened a progress review meeting with National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to track the cadence of Ehsaas Rashan Riayat Registration. The meeting discussed that with the collaborative efforts of Chief Secretaries of KP and Punjab, NBP team and district administrations, the Kiryana retailer registrations have risen substantively from 300 to 3,000 per week. President NBP, Arif Usmani; Chief Digital Officer NBP, Hamayoun Sajjad, executive leadership and over 500 regional officers from all over the country joined the meeting. Secretary of the Social Safety Division, Muhammad Ali Shahzada and Additional Secretary Captain (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Nawaz were also in attendance. The Rashan Riayat programme of Ehsaas is being executed in partnership with NBP. The registrations of Kiryana retailers and poor families are currently in full swing and preparations are underway to formally roll out the programme soon. NBP is facilitating the Kiryana owners to open their bank accounts. NBP authorized Kiryana retailers will disburse Ehsaas Rashan subsidy to eligible beneficiaries through a special purpose, ‘mobile Point of Sale’ (mPOS) App. Answering questions of NBP field officers, Dr. Sania reassured that Ehsaas Rashan Riayat system has been made hundred percent digital to checkmate misuse. It has nothing to do with bringing the Kiryana owners in the tax fold. The Kiryana owners centered communications plan was also discussed to apprise retailers of the 8% tax exempted commission on each subsidy transaction and quarterly raffles offering cars, motor bikes, mobile phones and various other prizes. Later, responding to another most frequently asked question from the field team, Dr. Sania stated, “Ehsaas Rashan Riayat is flexible to variety and quality of commodities. Eligible families will be free to avail a subsidy of Rs. 1,000 a month on the purchase of wheat flour, pulses, cooking oil or ghee of their preference. Accordingly, 30% subsidy will be given on these three items, per unit purchase.” Dr. Sania thanked the NBP leadership and team for expediting the progress of Kiryana registrations. She also urged them to accelerate the verification and account opening process for registered Kiryana stores.
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