It has been learned that the Punjab Labor and Human Resource Department has delayed the disbursement of the Punjab Mazdoor Cards (PMCs) in order to give credit for the scheme to the new government.
The PMC – a flagship project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government – promises subsidized goods and services and cash benefits to registered workers and their families. However, the distribution of the cards is delayed.
A report by Dawn.com quoted official sources as saying that the federal government wants to repackage the green and red cards to take credit for the scheme.
The Bank of Punjab (BoP) has borne all the costs pertaining to the ATM-supported debit card and reportedly spent over Rs. 160 million through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It had received around 25 percent of the total 1.2 million cards that were printed and shipped off from China, as per the report.
Dawn quoted a senior official from the Punjab Labor Department as saying, “The BoP, through a Letter of Agreement, had accepted the request of the Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI) governing body to bear the total cost of the card’s designing, manufacturing, disbursement, data collection, and verification, besides direct disbursement to the beneficiaries from the bank’s own resources”.
The official said that the PMCs, including those with registered laborers’ names, need to be disbursed as early as possible as the cards will expire on 9 May. The BoP needs to disburse the cards at least two weeks ahead of the expiry date but despite all the arrangements, the PESSI has not received the permission to do so, and this will lead to the expiry of the cards alongside a massive financial loss to the bank.
The PESSI has informed the Labor Department again that the cards will expire if not activated within 60 days of issuance (as per the date printed on them) as per the State Bank of Pakistan’s regulations.
“Some 1.2 million registered workers and their nine million family members are waiting for the delivery of the cards for quite some time with their fingers crossed,” Dawn added, citing the source.
“Under the banking rules, the BoP is bound to deliver the cards to the account-holder beneficiaries directly and cannot hand these over to the PESSI,” the source remarked.
Article originally published on ProPakistani
