Bilal Azhar Kayani directs the State Bank of Pakistan to prepare an approval framework for the Raast QR Merchant Discount Rate scheme to accelerate the country’s cashless drive.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has doubled its overall digital payment volumes in just one year, while the number of active merchants accepting digital payments has increased from 500,000 to 2.03 million under the government’s Cashless Pakistan initiative.
The progress was reviewed at a high-level follow-up meeting chaired by Minister of State for Railways and Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani at the Finance Division.
The meeting brought together senior public and private sector stakeholders to assess decisions taken by the Cashless Committee under the Prime Minister’s chairmanship and discuss measures to expand digital transactions.
According to an official statement issued on Friday, participants reviewed the framework for the Raast QR Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) scheme and improvements to the initiative’s monitoring dashboard. The dashboard will track transaction volumes and values, alongside the number of unique account users.
Several developments were highlighted during the meeting:
• From November 16, all payments for Asaan Assignment Accounts nationwide will be processed through the Raast digital payment system. Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) have already received training.
• Raast QR codes have been placed on more than 45 million gas and electricity bills, allowing consumers to pay digitally.
• All NADRA centres have been equipped with Raast QR facilities to enable digital payments for public services.
• Active merchants accepting digital payments have increased to 2.03 million from 500,000.
Kayani directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to prepare a working paper to facilitate approval of the Raast QR MDR scheme, enabling further expansion of QR-based payments.
He also announced plans to meet bank presidents and chief executives in Karachi to discuss their role in promoting digital transactions and supporting the national initiative.
The minister emphasised the need for outcome-based economic indicators and asked the SBP to examine the inclusion of macroeconomic measures, including the ratio of payments processed through the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to gross domestic product (GDP).
Representatives from the Finance Division, SBP, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, NADRA, Easypaisa, JazzCash, Bank Alfalah, JS Bank and Karandaaz Pakistan attended the meeting.
Kayani called for stronger coordination between public and private sector institutions to achieve the government’s Cashless Pakistan targets.