India on Thursday snubbed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer to share the experience of his government’s cash transfer scheme with New Delhi, reported PTI. The Ministry of External Affairs reminded Khan that the size of India’s economic stimulus package was as big as Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product.
India’s response came hours after Khan offered to share the country’s cash transfer programme with India citing a report in The Express Tribune that claimed 84% of Indian households suffered a decline in monthly income following the nationwide lockdown imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. “Acc[According] to this report, 34% of households across India will not be able to survive for more than a week without add [additional] assistance,” Khan had tweeted. “I am ready to offer help & share our successful cash transfer prog [programme], lauded internationally for its reach & transparency, with India.” Khan claimed that his government had successfully transferred Pakistani Rs 120 billion (Rs 5,533 crore) to over one crore families in nine weeks.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava reminded Khan of Islamabad’s debts. “Pakistan is better known for making cash transfers to bank accounts outside the country rather than giving to its own people,” Srivastava said during an online media briefing. “Clearly, Imran Khan needs a new set of advisers and better information. We all know about their debt problem [almost 90% of GDP] and how much they have pressed for debt restructuring. It would also be better for them to remember that India has a stimulus package, which is as large as Pakistan’s annual GDP.”
In May, the Indian government unveiled a Rs 20-lakh crore economic package to help the country tide over the crisis caused due to the pandemic, which has infected over 2.97 lakh people in India as of Friday morning, and killed more than 8,400. In March, immediately following the imposition of the lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had unveiled a package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore. The benefits – through cash and food – were targeted at farmers, migrant workers, the poor, women and the disabled, among others.
However, there have been complaints that the aid has largely failed to reach the intended recipients. The Opposition has repeatedly criticised the Centre for failing to address the problems of suffering migrant workers and said that the government’s economic packages were insufficient. Last month, the Congress had called a meeting of several Opposition parties to discuss the Centre’s measures to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus crisis.
Pakistan, on the other hand, launched the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme in March to provide urgent payments to 1.2 crore households. The programme offered immediate relief in the form of cash worth $75 (INR 5,676) to each household.
On June 3, the World Economic Forum praised the programme, saying that it had already helped over 90 lakh households. “...the legacy of this programme is not simply short-term relief,” the World Economic Forum said. “Built into its design are longer-term goals to increase financial inclusion and to strengthen overall safety nets in Pakistan, both of which will bring lasting benefits to recipients and the country as a whole.”
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