{"id":24833,"date":"2025-10-03T04:06:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T04:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=24833"},"modified":"2025-10-03T04:07:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T04:07:03","slug":"digitalisation-all-govt-payments-will-go-via-raast-by-fy26-says-sbp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=24833","title":{"rendered":"Digitalisation: all govt payments will go via Raast by FY26, says SBP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>KARACHI: In a major step towards making big payments through digital channels, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday it had chalked out plans to move all the government payments through Raast \u2013 the country\u2019s instant payment system \u2013 by the end of the ongoing fiscal year 2025-26.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have plans that, with the close of this fiscal year, we will be having all government payments go to Raast. We are working very aggressively,\u201d SBP deputy governor Saleem Ullah said while speaking at the launch of a study titled \u2018Merchant Payments on RAAST: Responsible Pricing for Impact and Inclusion.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further said the government had announced a subsidy for merchants in Raast to share their costs and encourage them to join the digital payment platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subsidy programme for person-to-merchant\/P2M QR Code-based transactions is not limited only to the ongoing fiscal year (FY26), but this is a three-year programme. The government has already allocated Rs3.5 billion subsidy for September 2025 to June 2026 about a week ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe subsidy would ensure merchants face zero or minimal cost in adopting digital platforms. It shall be paid at the rate of 0.5% of the value of each Raast P2M QR Code-based transaction or Rs100, whichever is lower,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is more than Rs11.2 trillion to Rs11.3 trillion available in cash in the economy. If Rs2.5 trillion to Rs3 trillion of this is brought back into the banking system, it will benefit everybody \u2013 banks, fintechs, and all stakeholders \u2013 and help overcome the huge undocumented and the informal economy, the deputy governor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to win the war against cash, and that can only be achieved through partnerships and collaborations among stakeholders. This will help accelerate digitalisation of the economy and expedite inclusive growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Nations (UN)-based Better Than Cash Alliance conducted the study in consultation with SBP, a financial service provider, and industry stakeholders. The study recommends a fee to be paid to merchants on P2M transactions on Raast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Pakistan may go cashless in 3 years\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better Than Cash Alliance, managing director, L. Nshuti Mbabazi said Pakistan might go cashless within the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPakistan has everything required to go cashless in less than three years,\u201d Mbabazi said while addressing the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have everything. The banks present here show that appetite. Infrastructure, the connectivity to get it going, I am sure, when the business case makes sense, the infrastructure investors will invest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She urged the regulators and the government to make effective policies that build an ecosystem that leaves no one behind and drives financial inclusion and they mobilise trillions of cash in the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fee on Raast recommended<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raza Matin of Pakistan Leads, Better Than Cash Alliance, said the study had recommended a 0.35% MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) floor across most sectors to protect the business models of acquirers that couldn\u2019t monetise beyond transactional income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other recommendations included setting specific rates for price-sensitive segments like fuel, education, and utilities, as well as higher-risk sectors such as e-commerce; eliminating issuers’ interchange fees to reduce merchant burden; introducing a zero fee for microtransactions (below Rs300) and assuring merchants that P2M data would not be used for tax enforcement in the early phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While talking to journalists, Matin said they had recommended pricing, as there was a cost in doing online transactions. \u201cHowever, there is no price on person-to-person (P2P) transactions on Raast, nor is there a recommendation to price P2P transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link: https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40385604\/digitalisation-all-govt-payments-will-go-via-raast-by-fy26-says-sbp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARACHI: In a major step towards making big payments through digital channels, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday it had chalked out plans to move all the government payments through Raast \u2013 the country\u2019s instant payment system \u2013 by the end of the ongoing fiscal year 2025-26. \u201cWe have plans that, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23991,23999,23997,24004,24009],"tags":[8544,14965,24074,483,18714,24073],"class_list":["post-24833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-economic-trends","category-global-issues","category-political-analysis","category-technology-geopolitics","tag-advancements-2","tag-digitalization-2","tag-dogotal-payments","tag-pakistan-2","tag-sci-tech-2","tag-state-bank-of-pakistan-3","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24836,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24833\/revisions\/24836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}