KARACHI, Feb 26: The Utility Bachat Card scheme, launched this month at the utility stores, has received an average response from the beneficiaries registered with the Pakistan Bait ul Maal.

As many as two million deserving persons have been identified in the country, who are registered with the Bait ul Maal.

Zonal Manager Utility Stores Corporation (Sindh Balochistan zone), Masood Alam Niazi told Dawn on Tuesday that the beneficiaries were slowly turning up at the utility stores, perhaps owing to lack of awareness among them.

He said out of two million beneficiaries in the country, around 100,000 have been identified in Sindh as per Bait ul Maal’s information, while around 23,000 deserving persons are registered in Karachi.

The USC has asked the Pakistan Bait ul Maal to inform the beneficiaries through their field officers to contact the utility stores along with their passbooks so that they can be registered and get the essential items subsidized by the government for them, he said.

The card scheme provides rebate on purchase of basic commodities like flour, sugar, ghee and cooking oil, rice and gram pulse.

Each beneficiary will get a total Rs500 subsidy per month on purchase of essential commodities from utility stores.

The bachat scheme is divided into three phases. The first phase, currently underway, covers all the beneficiaries registered with Bait ul Maal while the second phase will cover beneficiaries registered with the Zakat and Usher department and the Kafalat scheme of the provincial department.

The third phase will cover families of low paid employees, senior citizens and the disabled persons.