The government has made registration for the Prime Minister’s Fuel Subsidy Scheme easier by waiving the charges on SMS applications, providing additional relief to low and middle income citizens already benefiting from the broader relief package. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed that the SMS required for registration under the Petrol Subsidy Scheme be made completely free of cost, according to a statement issued by the PM Office Media Wing. The subsidy scheme covers owners of motorcycles, rickshaws, and vehicles with engine capacity of up to 800cc, with the relief initiative being implemented nationwide, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The directive follows the prime minister’s earlier announcement offering a Rs100 per litre reduction in petrol prices for motorcycles, rickshaws, Qingqi rickshaws, and cars with engines of up to 800cc, with the scheme launched in Islamabad during the night between September 14 and 15 before extending to eligible citizens nationwide from September 16 and 17. Eligible applicants can register by sending an SMS to 9771 in the prescribed format, providing their CNIC number, vehicle number plate, the first letter of the province where the vehicle is registered, and the vehicle’s registration date. The registration SMS, which was previously subject to standard telecom charges, can now be sent without any cost, removing what had been a small but real barrier for lower income users sending the message repeatedly if earlier attempts failed due to formatting errors.
Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja had earlier detailed that the CNIC provided must be registered against the SIM being used for the application, since the information gets verified against Pakistan Telecommunication Authority data, and that the province entered in the SMS must match where the vehicle itself was registered rather than the applicant’s province of residence. After successful registration, beneficiaries receive a confirmation message and can then send “TOK” to 9771 before visiting a petrol station to obtain a fuel relief token, which is presented to station staff for verification before receiving the subsidised fuel. Motorcycle and three-wheeler users are eligible for up to 20 litres of subsidised petrol per month in 5 litre increments once a week, while small car users up to 800cc can access up to 30 litres monthly in 10 litre increments once every 10 days.
Making the registration SMS free specifically addresses a friction point for a scheme explicitly designed to reach economically vulnerable groups, since even a nominal SMS charge could discourage repeated registration attempts among users least able to absorb small recurring costs. Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik has said the government will allocate Rs25 billion per month for the fuel relief scheme, with further information about the Prime Minister’s Fuel Subsidy Scheme available through its dedicated Urdu language website. As the scheme continues its nationwide rollout across all provinces and the country’s northern territories, the free SMS registration removes one more procedural hurdle for beneficiaries navigating what remains a multi-step process requiring both accurate CNIC-to-SIM matching and correct vehicle registration details to successfully enroll.
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