Approval of Raast QR MDR scheme: SBP told to prepare working paper

ISLAMABAD: The government has directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to prepare a working paper for approval of the Raast QR Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) scheme to sustain the expansion of digital payments, as active merchants accepting digital payments have increased fourfold to 2.03 million under the Prime Minister’s Cashless Pakistan initiative.

Minister of State for Railways and Finance, Bilal AzharKayani, chaired a high-level follow-up meeting on “Cashless Pakistan” at the Finance Division, with a focus on digital payments. The meeting followed the Prime Minister’s meeting on Cashless Pakistan held on November 6. The meeting brought together senior public and private sector stakeholders to review the decisions taken by the Cashless Committee under the Prime Minister’s chairmanship.

The discussion focused on refining the framework for Raast QR MDR scheme and on ensuring that the high-level Dashboard captures not only the volumes but also the values of key digital payment indicators, along with the number of unique account users.

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The Committee deliberated on the direction and targets for expanding digital payments, in light of the significant progress made under the Prime Minister’s Cashless initiative, including:

From November 16, all payments for Asaan Assignment Accounts across the country will be made through the Raast digital system; Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) have already been trained.

Active merchants accepting digital payments have grown from 0.5 million to 2.03 million, attributable to the measures taken under the Cashless Pakistan initiative.

Raast payment QR codes have been placed on all gas and electricity bills (over 45 million), enabling citizens to conveniently pay their bills digitally from home.

All NADRA centres have been equipped with Raast QR, enabling citizens to pay for services digitally.

The overall volume of digital payments in the country has doubled in just one year due to the measures taken by the PM’s Cashless Committee.

In line with the Prime Minister’s directions at the last Cashless Pakistan meeting, the Minister of State directed the State Bank of Pakistan to prepare a working paper to process the approval of the Raast QR MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) scheme, so that the promotion of Raast QR can continue.

To further sharpen the focus on the Cashless initiative, the Minister of State will meet the presidents and CEOs of banks in Karachi to discuss the Prime Minister’s Cashless initiative and the promotion of digital payments, so that all banks can play their part in this national initiative.

The Minister of State also highlighted the importance of measuring outcome-based indicators of the economy, and directed the State Bank of Pakistan to assess the inclusion of macroeconomic indicators, such as the ratio of payments processed through RTGS to GDP.

The meeting was attended by senior representatives of the Finance Division, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) and NADRA. From the private sector, participants included the President of Easypaisa Digital Bank, the Chairman of JazzCash and the Chief Digital Officer of Bank Alfalah, along with senior officials of JS Bank, Karandaaz Pakistan and other leading institutions of the digital payments industry.

The Minister of State thanked all participants for their contributions and directed that coordination between public and private stakeholders be strengthened to achieve the targets of the Cashless Pakistan initiative.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026