Islamabad: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has said transferring national economy to cashless system will ensure durable economic development and promote transparency.
He has directed that all remittances coming from outside country should be made 100 percent digital.
Awareness campaign to attract merchants to digital payments through QR code be made more effective.
A meeting on cashless economy and promotion of digital payments was held under PM Shehbaz Sharif here Tuesday.
PM held that increase in number of mobile banking app users from 9 crore 50 lac to 13 crore 70 lac in one year is significant achievement.
He stressed that banks and financial institutions should play powerful role for promotion of cashless economy.
He appreciated shifting payments of Benazir Income Support Program to digital system describing it transparent, speedy and easy for the recipients.
Briefing was given in the progress on the steps for cashless economy in the meeting.
The number of merchants who have received payments through digital process from June 2025 to June 2026 has risen to 2003000 with 30 percent increase.
90 percent payments of NADRA have become digitalized and cash payments have been reduced from 71 percent to 1 percent.
All the payments are being made to one crore consumers of Benazir Income Support program through digital wallet.
At present the number of Mobile banking consumers is 13 crore 70 lac. 11.9 billion digital transactions were recorded from July 2025 to June 2026.
92 percent amount of remittances were received through digital process during the previous year.
Third party validation is underway with reference to cashless economy and final report along with recommendations will be presented in November 2026.
Pakistan banking association has given targets to member banks for digital payments including promotion of RAAST system.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers Wahid Khan Cheema, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Atta Ullah Tarar, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Ali Pervez Malik, state minister for finance Bilal Azhar Kiyani, governor state bank Jamil Ahmad, chairman NADRA and senior officers of respective departments.