Rs 23 billion disbursed among farmers: NA told

Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) Rajab Ali Baloch on Monday apprised the National Assembly that Rs 23.45 billion had been disbursed among farmers under the Prime Minister's Kissan Package so far.

Replying to a question, he said that the Prime Minister had announced the Rs 348 billion Kissan Package for farmers, including direct cash assistance to rice and cotton growers, subsidy on fertilizers and electricity and tax relief on import of agriculture machinery.

He said that the package provided direct benefit of Rs 147 billion to small farmers across the country. He said that the Ministry of NFS&R was given the task of distribution of Rs 20 billion subsidy on phosphatic fertilizers. After following the procedure, around 28 subsidy claims for October and November, 2015 amounting to Rs 8.264 billion had already been paid to the phosphatic fertilizer manufacturers and commercial importers.

Rajab Ali Baloch said that the Punjab Government in close coordination with the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) launched a cash support of Rs 5000 per acre of cotton and rice growers upto 12.5 acres in 33 districts of the province.

He said around 166 disbursement centres were established with the facility of one window operation. The scheme was to disburse Rs 32 billion among 1.6 million farmers of the province, he added He said Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited disbursed an amount of Rs 38.75 billion against the allocated target of Rs 102 billion for fiscal year 2015-16. This included Rs. 28.94 billion in Punjab, Rs 7.255 billion in Sindh, Rs 2.1 billion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rs. 0.134 billion in Balochistan, Rs. 0.169 billion in GB and Rs. 0.147 billion in AJK.