Prime Minister Imran Khan. PHOTO: PTI

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to immediately approve the proposal for increasing the cash grant under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).



He also instructed the commerce adviser to finalise the proposal to reduce fertiliser prices by Rs400 to provide relief to small farmers.



“The government is striving to provide maximum relief to the people despite difficult economic conditions,” the premier said while chairing a meeting held to review measures taken to control the soaring prices of essential commodities.



He ordered the relevant authorities to chalk out a mechanism to vurb the price hike.



PM Imran said the government realised that the people, particularly those belonging to lower-income households, were facing difficulties amid the course of economic reforms.



The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to take all possible measures to curb hoarding and profiteering.



The participants of the meeting were informed that the government had allocated Rs190 billion for the Ehsaas programme and the poor were also being given a health insurance cover of Rs720,000.

The government has also provided Rs7 billion to the Utility Stores Corporation to reduce the prices of food items.



The prime minister said as the common man's relief was among government's top priorities, all the ministries concerned should furnish a detailed report to him within two days on the measures taken to accomplish the goal.



Planning Minister Asad Umar, Food Security Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razzak Dawood, Finance Adviser Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, special assistants to PM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Nadeem Afzal Chan and former finance minister Shaukat Tareen were among those who attended the meeting.



According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the cost of living in the country has increased further as inflation increased to 11.11% in the first half (Jul-Dec) of current fiscal year, mainly due to a hike in prices of perishable food items like wheat flour, cooking oil, sugar, meat, vegetables and pulses.



The surge in prices of perishable food items had the largest impact on the overall inflation reading.



Food inflation spiked 82.31% in December compared to the same month of previous year.



Overall inflation had been recorded at 10.8% in first five months (Jul-Nov) of the current fiscal year 2019-20. The reading hit 12.63% in December 2019.



Inflation came in at 12.63% in December 2019 compared to 12.67% in the prior month and 5.4% in December 2018.



Core inflation – non-food and non-energy – remained unchanged at 7.5% for the second consecutive month in December. It had hit a multi-year high of 8.5% in August.



The PBS reported that inflation for perishable food items spiked to 82.31% during the month under review.



The food and non-alcoholic beverages group saw a rise of 19.74% during the month. The alcoholic beverages and tobacco group recorded an increase of 18.27%. The transport group registered an increase of 14.65%.



Other segments in the overall inflation reading including non-perishable food items, clothing and footwear, housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels, health, education, communications, restaurants and hotels saw price hikes in the range of 3.98-11.37%.



With additional input from APP