Islamabad, June 22, 2025 – The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has formally endorsed the Digital Presence Proceeds Tax Act, 2025, a landmark legislation designed to tax proceeds generated from digital economic activities in Pakistan by non-resident entities. The new law, which is part of the Finance Bill 2025, is expected to come into force on July 1, 2025, pending final approval by the National Assembly.
(more…)Tag: digital payment
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Finance Bill 2025 targets digital transactions in massive tax sweep
Karachi, June 11, 2025 – In a dramatic shake-up of Pakistan’s digital economy, the federal government has unleashed a sweeping new tax regime on digital transactions through e-commerce platforms as part of the Finance Bill 2025. The latest move targets the booming world of online sales, aiming to bring long-ignored digital commerce into the tax net.
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Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Receives Regulatory Approval
Karachi, January 30, 2024 – Raqami Islamic Digital Bank (RIDB) has achieved a significant milestone by securing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and In-Principal Approval (IPA) from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to establish an Islamic digital retail bank.
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Raqami Partners with Codebase for Digital Banking Platform
Islamabad, January 22, 2024 – Raqami Islamic Digital Bank has taken a significant leap towards revolutionizing the digital banking landscape by entering an exclusive agreement with Codebase Technologies.
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Raqami and Euronet Pakistan Forge Alliance for Digital Payments
Karachi, January 14, 2024 — Raqami Islamic Digital Bank (RIDB) and Euronet Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. have joined forces in an exclusive partnership aimed at spearheading the digital payments landscape in Pakistan.
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New Data Reveals Pakistan’s Transition to Digital Payments
Karachi, January 6, 2024 – Recent data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) indicates a significant shift in Pakistan’s financial landscape, with the country increasingly adopting digital payments and moving away from traditional paper or cash-based transactions.
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Pakistan’s e-banking registers sharp increase in 1QFY22
KARACHI: Pakistan’s e-banking registered sharp growth in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021/2022, the central bank said on Monday.
E-banking—defined as transactions conducted via electronic channels (including Real-time Online Branches, ATMs, mobile banking, internet banking, call center banking, POS and e-Commerce), continued to thrive in both volume and value during the quarter under review as it grew by 12 per cent and 16 per cent respectively in Q1-FY22 over the same quarter of FY21.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released its first quarterly report of payment systems for the fiscal year 2021-22 today covering the period July – September, 2021. The report shows that Pakistan’s payment ecosystem, especially though digital platforms, continued its brisk pace of growth.
READ MORE: SBP imposes Rs1.45 billion penalty on 18 banks in 2021
Two major areas where high adoption in digital payments were witnessed are mobile and internet banking. The number of mobile banking users grew by 4 per cent on quarter over quarter (QoQ) basis, reaching a total of 11.3 million.
The number of transactions conducted via mobile banking channels was 79.1 million with a value of around PKR 2.2 trillion, showing a QoQ growth of 29 per cent by volume and 36 per cent by value. Internet banking also contributed to the upswing in usage of e-Banking services by registering 31 per cent QoQ growth in internet banking users who conducted 30 million transactions amounting to PKR 1.9 trillion. This amounts to 6 per cent progress in terms of volume and 10 per cent increase in the value of these transactions on QoQ basis.
READ MORE: SBP imposes penalty of Rs58 million on five banks
Retail sector continued to show adoption of digital payments. Overall e-Commerce transactions recorded an impressive QoQ growth of 87 per cent by volume and 21 per cent by value, though the number of e-commerce merchants remained almost the same as of the last quarter.
During the quarter, 12.7 million ecommerce related transactions amounting to Rs22.3 billion were conducted using digital payment channels. Similarly, the number of merchant Point of Sale (POS) machines also increased by 10 per cent QoQ reaching to 79,134 machines in the country.
These machines processed 28.1 million card-based transactions at merchant locations amounting to almost PKR 134.9 billion which showed QoQ increase of 16.1 per cent by volume and 10.6 per cent by value.
READ MORE: SBP slaps Rs280 million penalty on National Bank
As of end-September 2021, there were 46.2 million total cards in circulation which mainly comprised of Debit Cards (64 per cent), Social Welfare Cards (22 per cent), ATM only Cards (10 per cent), Credit Cards (4 per cent), and Prepaid Cards (0.3 per cent). During this quarter, QoQ increase of 5 per cent in volume of paper-based transactions and 3 per cent increase in value of paper-based transactions was also observed which may be attributed to people returning to traditional channels (i.e. branches) as pandemic related restrictions were lifted.
In Large-value (wholesale) payments segment, transactions processed, during this quarter, through SBP’s Real-time Inter-Bank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM) recorded a total of 1.1 million transactions amounting to PKR 159.1 trillion which is 7 per cent higher than the preceding quarter.
READ MORE: National Bank under grip of regulatory violations
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FBR extends digital payment system till January 31
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has deferred the implementation of a digital mode of payment for another month i.e. January 31, 2022.
The digital mode of payment has been made mandatory for the corporate sector, which was to be implemented from January 01, 2021.
The FBR issued circular No. 11 of 2021-22 on Monday to allow further extension till January 31, 2021.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 214A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 (hereinafter “the Ordinance”) and taking cognizance of various representations filed by the taxpayers, the Federal Board of Revenue is pleased to extend the deadline for digital payments by Corporate Sector stipulated in Section 21(1a) of the Ordinance up to January 31, 2022.”
Previously, the FBR issued Circular No. 09 of 2021-22 to allow an extension in the deadline for implementation of digital mode of payment up to November 30, 2021.
The new provision was introduced through Tax Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.
The FBR in its explanation through Circular No. 07 dated September 23, 2021 said: to improve documentation, a new clause (la) has been inserted in section 21 of the Ordinance.
The Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) in a letter to the FBR chairman stated that the implementation of digital payment was not practical at the moment.
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SBP introduces licensing, regulations for digital banking
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday introduced a licensing and regulatory framework for digital banks in line with the international best practices.
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FBR defers digital payment provision till December 31
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has deferred the implementation of a digital mode of payment for another month i.e. December 31, 2021.
The digital mode of payment has been made mandatory for the corporate sector, which was to be implemented from December 01, 2021.
The FBR issued circular No. 10 of 2021-22 on Wednesday to allow further extension till December 31, 2021.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 214A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 (hereinafter “the Ordinance”) and taking cognizance of various representations filed by the taxpayers, the Federal Board of Revenue is pleased to extend the deadline for digital payments by Corporate Sector stipulated in Section 21(1a) of the Ordinance up to December 31, 2021.”
Previously, the FBR issued Circular No. 09 of 2021-22 to allow an extension in the deadline for implementation of digital mode of payment up to November 30, 2021.
The new provision was introduced through Tax Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.
The FBR in its explanation through Circular No. 07 dated September 23, 2021 said: to improve documentation, a new clause (la) has been inserted in section 21 of the Ordinance.
The Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) in a letter to the FBR chairman stated that the implementation of digital payment was not practical at the moment.