Digital Payment Merchants Quadruple in One Year

The federal government plans to revise and strengthen the criteria for identifying active digital payment users and merchants, while seeking tax policy reform proposals to speed up the Prime Minister’s Cashless Pakistan initiative. The move comes as the number of merchants accepting electronic payments quadrupled during the last fiscal year.

The decisions were made at a high-level meeting held at the Finance Division on Tuesday, chaired by Minister of State for Railways and Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani. The meeting reviewed digital payment indicators and identified priorities for the initiative’s next phase.

The committee agreed to formulate and review definitions for active app users, active merchants and unique digital payment users to ensure more accurate measurement of progress.

Kayani also instructed private-sector representatives to develop proposals for tax policy reforms that could encourage broader use of digital payment systems.

Participants discussed three key indicators: the number of active and unique users of digital payment channels, the annual volume of digital transactions, and the number of merchants actively accepting electronic payments.

The meeting also assessed the reliability of existing indicators and explored different approaches to measuring payment usage, user activity and unique users.

Officials informed the meeting that the number of merchants accepting digital payments had grown fourfold over the previous fiscal year.

Separately, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has digitised 99% of payments at its service centres across the country, while passport centres have also been equipped with facilities to accept digital payments.

The government has achieved digital payment acceptance of approximately 75% across centralised and self-accounting entities.

Kayani stressed the importance of maintaining accurate, verified and duplicate-free information on the Cashless Pakistan dashboard to ensure progress is tracked consistently and transparently.

He said the initiative was designed to make public services more convenient, enhance transparency and speed up the documentation of economic activity.

The minister reaffirmed the government's commitment to collaborating with regulators, financial institutions, fintech companies and other private-sector stakeholders to expand digital payments and promote financial inclusion.

Senior officials from the Finance Division, State Bank of Pakistan, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, NADRA and Pakistan Digital Authority attended the meeting.

Private-sector participants included representatives from the Pakistan Banking Association, Easypaisa Digital Bank, JazzCash, Bank Alfalah, JS Bank and Karandaaz Pakistan.

Kayani directed stakeholders from both the public and private sectors to improve coordination and work collectively towards achieving the Cashless Pakistan initiative's targets.