ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf launched on Friday the ‘Bachat Card’ scheme aimed at providing essential food items at reduced rates to 6.8 million low-income households.

The president and the caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro distributed the cards among a group of deserving people at the launching ceremony.

“We will absorb an amount of Rs3 billion monthly — Rs 36 billion annually on the subsidy,” the president said, adding that five items would be made available at prices around 42 per cent less than in the market and 25 per cent less than at the Utility Stores.

The president said efforts were being made to counter the inflationary trend by raising salaries of government employees and the minimum wages. He said the salaries would be further increased this year.

The president said “utility store bachat card” would provide relief on five basic items, flour, ghee and oil, sugar, rice and dal channa, through 4,500 Utility Stores outlets.

Under the scheme, people with the cards will get flour at Rs9 per kg and sugar at Rs15 per kg.

He said the number of stores would be increased to 6,000 by March 31, and mobile utility stores would cover the areas with no stores.

Initially, the scheme will be launched in Islamabad and it will be expanded to other parts of the country to cover 2 million poor families registered with the Bait-ul-Mal. Later 2.4 million households registered with the Ministry of Zakat and another 1.8 million poor families would be covered in the third phase of the scheme.

The president directed the Utility Stores Corporation to expand its network to the remote areas.

He said the scheme would later include pensioners, senior citizens with low-income, widows, unemployed people with education and government employees of BPS 1 to 5.

President Musharraf was informed about a joint venture of the Utility Stores Corporation and a private firm to supply clean drinking water at Rs 3 per litre against market rate of Rs 22 per litre.

Bachat Card holders will get five litres of water free with their purchase.—APP