Digital transaction system is essential to bring transparency in economy: PM Shahbaz Sharif

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that digital transaction system is indispensable to bring transparency in the economy, facilitating payments between citizens and businesses.
A weekly meeting on the promotion of cashless and digital economy was held under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, in which digital transactions were described as the main means of bringing transparency in the economy.
The prime minister said that the need of the hour is to promote digital systems to make payments easier and faster among citizens and businesses. The established committees related to the cashless economy should come up with viable proposals soon after consulting with all the stakeholders.
The meeting was informed that the Digital Payments Innovation and Adoption Committee, Digital Public Infrastructure Committee and Government Payments Committee set up in the previous meeting have been formed.
The meeting was also informed that the State Bank of Pakistan is preparing a strategy to facilitate digital payments and involve merchants in the system. Preparations for the introduction of the special package for the inclusion of small businesses have been completed.
Thus, the number of people using mobile phone applications for digital payments is set to increase from 95 million to 120 million, the number of merchants using QR codes from 0.9 million to 2 million and overall digital transactions from Rs 7.5 billion to Rs 12 billion. Now the prime minister has also issued a directive to double all these targets.
The meeting also informed that the digital economy project under the Digital National Pakistan has been launched, and the Islamabad City app has been downloaded 1.3 million times so far, with 15 services available.
More than Rs 15.5 billion in excise and taxation has been recovered through this app. Work is also underway on the Digital Pakistan ID project, and e-stamping facility is being introduced soon in Islamabad.
The meeting was informed that work is underway to provide Wi-Fi internet facility at hospitals, educational institutions, government offices, parks and metro bus lines in the federal capital. The Prime Minister has also directed to extend these facilities to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and other federal territories.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom Shaza Fatima, Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervez Malik, Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr Tauqeer Shah, Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani and other relevant senior officials.