KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced to abolish the lower range of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), i.e., 1.5 percent for Point of Sale (POS).

As per previous directives issued in 2020 by the SBP, MDR for POS acquisition in Pakistan was within the range of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent for both existing and new merchants. However, the merchant categories of government and Utilities were exempt from this requirement.

Now the SBP has decided to abolish the lower limit of MDR and also revised the Interchange Reimbursement Fee (IRF) for cards to facilitate the acceptance of card-based payments. SBP has announced that IRF for debit and prepaid cards issued in Pakistan used on domestic POS terminals will not be exceeding 0.2 percent. In addition, IRF for credit cards will not exceed 0.7 percent. Previously, the IRF for debit and prepaid cards issued in Pakistan used on domestic POS terminals was capped at 0.5 percent.

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As per fresh directives, lower range of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), i.e., 1.5 percent is abolished in terms of the clause 2 (i) of PSD Circular No. 01 of 2020.

SBP has also advised that all e-commerce/ online payment acquirers operating in Pakistan will enable acceptance of Domestic Payment Scheme (DPS) cards for card-not-present (CNP) transactions on their respective payment gateways by June 30, 2023.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023