Pakistan: Total Retail Payments Grew by 35%

Pakistan: Total Retail Payments Grew by 35%

๐‘ช๐’‚๐’”๐’‰ ๐’•๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’”๐’‚๐’„๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’“๐’๐’–๐’ˆ๐’‰ ๐‘จ๐‘ป๐‘ด๐’” ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘ถ๐‘ป๐‘ช ๐’„๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’๐’†๐’๐’” ๐’„๐’๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’–๐’† ๐’•๐’ ๐’“๐’†๐’‘๐’“๐’†๐’”๐’†๐’๐’• ๐’‚ ๐’๐’‚๐’“๐’ˆ๐’† ๐’”๐’‰๐’‚๐’“๐’† ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’๐’•๐’‚๐’ ๐’“๐’†๐’•๐’‚๐’Š๐’ ๐’‘๐’‚๐’š๐’Ž๐’†๐’๐’•๐’” ๐’ƒ๐’š ๐’—๐’‚๐’๐’–๐’†.

Pakistan: Total Retail Payments Grew by 35%. Resultantly, the total transactions reach 6.4 billion with a value of PKR 546.6 trillion. Retail payments include a wide variety of payment methods, such as ATM withdrawals, over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, and digital payments.

Digital payments within retail saw an even more significant increase. Their share of total retail payments rose to 84%, up from 76% in FY23. The number of digital retail payment transactions grew to 5.37 billion in FY24, marking a substantial shift towards digital channels.

Despite the increasing use of digital payments, cash remains dominant, particularly in higher-value transactions. The Rs. 9 trillion cash-in-circulation (residing outside the formal banking system) shows a significant portion of economic activity remains outside the digital payment infrastructure.

While digital payments have seen substantial growth, particularly in terms of transaction volume, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐จ๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐š๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐š๐ฒ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž๐ง ๐›๐ฒ ๐ง๐จ๐ง-๐๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐๐ฌ. Bridging this gap will require reducing cash dependency through financial inclusion initiatives, expanding digital infrastructure, and increasing trust in digital payment systems. The rapid rise in mobile and internet banking, coupled with the potential of platforms like Raast, suggests that digital payments will continue to capture a larger share of retail payments in the coming years.

The Digital Payments Snapshot displays increasing trend of payments via online methods. In fact, the increasing penetration of digital payments can help the government in managing the financial structure across the country. It is particularly helpful in increasing the new taxes. Moreover, it can identify sectors which need support.

Recently, Pakistan was able to get IMF loan of $7 Billion. There are stringent terms with the loan and requires including the retail sector into the tax net.

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