RAWALPINDI, April 12 The government planned to increase the number of families benefiting from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to five million in the next financial year with a budget allocation of Rs65 billion, official sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The programme was launched last year with an initial allocation of Rs34 billion to give financial aid of Rs1,000 a month to three million families earning less than Rs6,000 per month.

The government is also considering merging cash transfer component of the Baitul Maal with the BISP.

The government adopted the poverty scorecard system to improve targeting of the programme and the system is expected to be completed in 16 districts as a pilot programme by the end of May.A government report said the rollout of the scorecard to all 130 districts was planned to be completed between Dec 2009 and June 2010, but as the rollout turned out to be more complicated than originally envisaged, BISP disbursements did not take place in the first half of the fiscal year.

However, the government has now approved 1.5 million beneficiary families, using the pre-scorecard targeting system.

Additionally, the report said, the government was continuing with the implementation of Baitul Maal scheme with an annual budget of Rs6.7 billion.