Federal govt announces two big packages for jobless, small traders

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The federal government has announced to allocate Rs75 billion for relief packages to small businesses and unemployed persons on Monday. After the ECC meeting, Federal Minister of Industries and Production Hammad Azhar announced this and a package for labourers laid off during the coronavirus lockdown during a Monday afternoon press conference. Hammad Azhar says the government has allocated 75 billion rupees to provide relief to labourers and daily wagers, who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus. he said this amount has been allocated on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide relief to the common people. “The government wants to help smaller businesses affected by the lockdown and so it is introducing this scheme to ensure that it can facilitate them as much as possible,” he added. Govt to pay electricity bills for small businesses The minister said that the federal government is going to pay the electricity bills for small businesses across the country for the months of May, June and July. He estimated that 3.5 million small businesses will be given relief through this Rs50 billion package. Businesses with 5KW connections and industries with 70KW connections will not have to pay their bills for three months. The government is going to approximate their energy usage for the months of May, June and July, when they resume operations, and pay their bills in advance. The minister said under the programme 12,000 rupees each will be distributed among four to six million people, which will be additional to 12 million Ehsas beneficiaries. He said a portal to this effect will be launched after getting federal cabinet's nod tomorrow. Hammad Azhar said labourers and daily wagers can get themselves registered by accessing the portal and filling the requisite information there. He said this process can be completed in around three minutes. He said the eligible people will be finalized after applying.

ECC approves another package of PM Programme

Hammad Azhar said the Economic Coordination Committee has also approved another package of PM Programme for small businesses, under which the government will pay their electricity bill for three months. He said small businesses having commercial connection of less than five kilowatt and industrial consumers less than 70 kilowatt can benefit from this initiative. He said 95 percent commercial and 80 percent industrial connection holders will be benefited of this facility. He said around 3.5 million people running small businesses like tailor shops, small markets, and industrial units will take advantage of this initiative. He said this programme will equally be available for the people of Azad Kashmir as well.