- Digital payments have struck RS1TR every nine days: the Governor of the SBP
- Shipping funds to become faster and safer under Buna.
- SBP targets an economy without species at the national level by June 2026.
Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to integrate its digital payment system into the Buna platform in the Arab world, operated by the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), The news reported.
The arrangement will allow cross -border transactions, but will only allow Pakistani entries abroad, without provision for external transfers.
The development was disclosed during a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the National Assembly, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, in an Islamabad computer park on Thursday.
The Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Jameel Ahmed informed the NA panel that transactions in the digital payment system have hovered around Rs1 million rupees compared to the annual when Raast was launched, but now the volume of transactions in the digital payment system crosses RS1 million in nine days.
Buna is the Arab regional payment system, a cross-border and multi-money platform belonging to the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) which allows financial institutions to send and receive payments in Arab and international currencies in the Arab region and beyond.
Launched in 2020, he supported currencies like the Saudi Riyal and Emirati, with future plans to integrate currencies from other countries, such as China, to improve regional economic integration and cross -border trade.
Information of the NA panel, the Governor of the SBP said that the new arrangement would make funds faster and safer. He added that in 2028, the objective is to provide 75% of young people from Pakistan with digital financial services, while an unnamed economy will be introduced at all federal and provincial levels by June 2026.
The SBP, he said, has already published five licenses for digital payments, while digital transactions will not be subject to merchant costs of 0.5%.
The Minister of State for Finance, Bilal Azhar Kayani, told the Committee that the government would absorb the cost to encourage the adoption of digital payments, stressing that Pakistan would become one of the first countries in the region to deploy such a digital ecosystem.
The finance secretary Idadullah Bosal informed members that wages, pensions, taxes and public service bills would gradually be transferred to the system without cash.
However, the SBP said that in the event of user errors in digital transactions, the banks would not compensate, while losses due to fraud or system errors would be covered by the respective service providers if the complaint was filed within two hours of any fraud.
Vice-Governor SBP Saleem Ullah, all in information on the NA panel, said that there were currently 95 million active mobile banking applications, 226 million bank accounts (96 million unique), 19,000 bank branches and 20,000 automatic ticket distributors on a national level, while 850,000 QR merchants are already integrated.
He added that the $ channels will authorize transactions even without internet access, and consumers will not be billed for payments without cash. During the meeting, Naveed Qamar raised concerns about the effectiveness of the digital ecosystem since “50% of the Pakistani economy is undocumented” and underlined the need for support for offline transactions.
Hina Rabbani Khar raised the issue of slower internet services and asked how the digital economy and without species would be promoted with serious disruption on the Internet.
The Committee also examined the Bill on Business Social Responsibility (CSR). The president of the SECP informed that in 2024, 315 out of 447 companies had carried out CSR activities, spending 22 billion rupees, while 199 companies have not shared details and 100 have spent nothing.
He said that CSR is a responsibility, but not yet compulsory, but a penalty of RS 1 billion has been placed for non-divulgation. The members suggested making CSR expenses compulsory and trained a subcommittee for a more in-depth discussion.
Meanwhile, the president of FBR, Rashid Langrial, said that CSR was thriving mainly due to the tax credits, because charitable expenses are exempt from tax. The Committee also expressed its dissatisfaction with the national 2025-30 electric vehicle policy and convened officials from the Ministry of Industries and Production for a detailed briefing at the next meeting.
In another development, Pakistan is ready to reimburse $ 500 million to the maturity of a Eurobond by September 30, 2025, coinciding with the visit of the IMF examination mission in Islamabad for the second examination of the Fund Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Pakistan and the IMF should organize revision talks from September 25 to the first week of October under the $ 7 billion arrangement.
“We have made arrangements to reimburse the $ 500 million Euro-Objects by September 30, and this reimbursement will not lead the exchange reserves,” said Jameel Ahmed, governor of the Pakistan State Bank, during a brief conversation with journalists following a meeting of the permanent committee of the National Assembly on the finance of the Parliament.
High -level official sources have indicated that the governor’s insurance without pressure on exchange reserves suggests that Islamabad is expecting foreign entries, or the central bank will continue to buy dollars on the market to guarantee timely reimbursements.
Out of the $ 26 billion in external reimbursements due during the year 2025-26, 3.5 billion dollars have already been paid. Among the remaining reimbursements, $ 9 billion are made up of friendly country deposits, which should be returned in due course.
Given the increase in debt reimbursement obligations in 2025-26, Pakistan decided to reintegrate the international capital market by issuing international bonds, including Panda bonds on the Chinese market.
The launch of a Eurobond or Sukuk obligation seems unlikely, because it depends on the international demand for the market and new improvements in the credit dimensions of Pakistan at least one notch of three renowned agencies.
The Panda obligation should be launched by December 2025, the first transaction planned to be between 200 and 250 million dollars. Two major Eurobonds reimbursements were due in 2025. The first, worth $ 500 million, matured in September 2025.
It was published in 2015 for 10 years at an interest rate of 8.25%. The second, worth $ 1 billion, matured in April 2026. It was issued in April 2021 for five years at a rate of 6%, according to a senior finance division.
Another reimbursement of the debt for an international obligation issued in April 2021, worth $ 1 billion, changed in 2031, with an interest rate of 7.3%. In addition, the government issued an international obligation in January 2022 to raise $ 1 billion for seven years, which threw in 2029.
