Islamabad set to become Pakistan’s first fully cashless city by Dec 31

The government has decided to make Islamabad the country’s first fully cashless city, with December 31 set as the deadline.

Chairing a meeting in Islamabad, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry on Friday said consultation and suggestions of all stakeholders are important for the successful implementation of the Cashless Islamabad initiative.

The minister of state said no cash payments will be accepted at any department of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) or the Capital Development Authority (CDA) after November 30.

He said the government aims to bring all merchants in Islamabad into the cashless payment system by December 31. “Around 26,000 merchants in Islamabad have already been connected to the digital payment system,” he said.

Talal said digital payment facilities will be provided at every level, from street vendors to major business centres.

CDA Chairman Sohail Ashraf, representatives of banking sector and other high officials attended the meeting.

The development comes a day after the government 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 Azhar Kayani, 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.