Three specialized committees have been established under the direction of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif to promote Pakistan’s shift to a cashless economy.
In order to expedite digital transactions in the public and private sectors, the Prime Minister chaired a high-level meeting on digital payments and announced the formation of the Government Payments Committee, the Digital Payments Innovation and Adoption Committee, and the Digital Public Infrastructure Committee.
These committees will be charged with developing a National Digital Master Plan, operationalizing the Pakistan Digital Authority, increasing public awareness of digital financial systems, and offering suggestions on how to facilitate simpler digital transactions between individuals and companies.
The objective to promote cashless economy is to use innovation and technology to streamline financial transactions between the government and its citizens and businesses.
To speed up acceptance, the prime minister directed that digital transactions be made more accessible and reasonably priced than cash payments. In order to improve economic efficiency and transparency, he underlined the importance of extending the reach of the RAAST payment system from the federal level to all provinces.
The Prime Minister said, “Cashless economies are the backbone of developed and thriving nations,” adding that digital transformation must include cutting-edge technologies to improve financial services.
The Prime Minister was briefed by officials on ongoing projects. The RAAST system currently serves more than 40 million users, and attempts are being made to expand this figure. All federal financial transactions are being handled by RAAST, and provinces are progressively adopting the system.
Along with confirming the creation of the Pakistan Digital Authority, which is aggressively advancing the objective for a cashless economy, the briefing emphasized the importance of fintech in bolstering the larger ecosystem.
The Ministry of Information Technology will be acting as the supervisor of the Digital Public Infrastructure Committee. The IT Ministry Secretariat has additionally established an advisory council to promote “Cashless Pakistan.”
As part of the Smart Islamabad pilot project, the IT Ministry is aiming to make Islamabad the first cashless metropolis in Pakistan.
Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Ali Pervaiz Malik, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Dr. Musadik Malik, the Governor of the State Bank, as well as the Chairman of the FBR, and other senior officials from the relevant ministries will be attending the meeting.
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