Islamabad
The Ministry of Finance Thursday described as factually inaccurate news report that published in a section of the press saying that the ‘PTI govt to use COVID-19 fund for interest payment’. In an official statement, the Ministry of Finance clarified that the Prime Minister COVID Relief Fund was to be utilized solely for providing cash assistance to the most vulnerable households and daily wagers. The government has scaled up emergency cash assistance to cover 16 million most vulnerable households due to the COVID 19 crisis, from 5 million households earlier. The ECC decision was to allocate Rs 10 billion towards the interest payment of Rs 200 billion PES II issued on May 20, 2020, from the Fiscal stimulus package of Rs 1.2 trillion. The government had earmarked Rs 100 billion for relief on power and gas for the citizens of Pakistan in the fiscal stimulus package. Towards this end, the government has already provided relief on utility bills for the next three months for the poorest households.—APP
