State Minister for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani has announced on Tuesday that all beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) will receive digital wallets this year.
What is a Z-Wallet?
He made the announcement while speaking at a ceremony for the launch of Z-Wallet. He said the government is working with the public and private sectors to increase the use of digital payments in Pakistan.
Kayani said the Raast payment system has played an important role in promoting digital payments. He added that the government is working to make digital payments easier for people.
How will BISP digital wallets work?
Kayani said more than 10 million BISP beneficiaries are already receiving their payments through digital methods. He said all BISP beneficiaries will be given digital wallets this year.
He explained that these wallets will work like bank accounts. Beneficiaries will be able to use them to pay utility bills and transfer money.
The state minister said the government wants to make all government payments fully digital. He said this will make the payment system more transparent, easier and more efficient.
How much has digital payment use increased?
The minister said more than 2 million merchants are now using digital payment services. The number of digital banking users has also reached 137 million.
He said the government has provided a subsidy on the Merchant Discount Rate to encourage payments through QR codes.
There has also been progress in making government payments digital. Digital payments by government institutions have increased from 9 per cent to 76 per cent.
For self-accounting institutions, the rate has increased from 5 per cent to 75 per cent.
Previously, BISP Chairperson Senator Rubina Khalid advised women who have not yet collected their free Benazir SIM from a BISP office, or are using another SIM, to visit their nearest BISP office and get the free SIM.
She asked beneficiaries to bring their original CNIC and personal mobile phone when collecting the SIM. She also advised them to ask the staff to insert the SIM into their phone at the office.