The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is taking concrete steps to give maximum relief to the people and to reduce impacts of inflation on the common man.
This was told during a meeting of the Food Department held here the other day with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair, said an official handout issued here on Friday.
Provincial Minister for Food Atif Khan, Special Assistant to CM on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Food Mushtaq Ahmad, Secretary Information Technology Matiullah Khan and other officials concerned attended the meeting.
The meeting discussed and reviewed the overall performance of the department with special focus on the matters related to wheat subsidy and a strategy to meet the wheat requirements of the province.
The meeting was told that subsidy on wheat flour is one of those relief initiatives, and the provincial government has allocated Rs. 15 billion in the budget of current financial year for subsidizing wheat flour whereas Rs. 10 billion had been spent on wheat subsidy during the last fiscal year.
The forum also discussed other reform initiatives including the process of digitalization in order to ensure transparency in the overall affairs of the department.
Briefing about the wheat requirements of the province, the forum was informed that 4.5 million metric ton wheat was the annual requirement of the province out of which 25% wheat was its own production and the rest of 75% was being purchased from the government of Punjab and PASSCO.
It was further informed that the overall mechanism related to purchase of wheat, its logistics, storage and supply to flour mills was being digitized in order to further streamline all the matters related to providing wheat flour to the people on subsidized rates.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that giving maximum relief to the people was one of the priority areas of his government for which multiple relief initiatives were underway.
He said that the provincial government was giving serious considerations to give significant relief to deserving households on basic food items in the upcoming budget.
