ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan today (Monday) launched Pakistan’s first instant payment system, ‘Raast’, to enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously.
The Prime Minister, while addressing the ceremony in Islamabad, termed the launch a major step forward by the State Bank of Pakistan towards Digital Pakistan. “The initiative will help include the low income groups and make them part of the mainstream economy,” he added.
PM Imran was optimistic that it would go a long way in fighting poverty, particularly in the rural areas. “The instant payment system would not only document the economy, but also generate more taxes to help build the country,” he remarked.
He regretted that only two million people in a country of 220 million paid taxes, which was not enough to build hospitals, schools and provide other basic facilities of life for the common man.
“Pakistan’s foreign remittances have been constantly on the rise for the past five months, and have helped stabilize the Pakistani Rupee,” he added.
He said after a gap of 17 years Pakistan’s current account has gone into surplus and, lowered pressure on Pakistani Rupee and played a key role in strengthening the national economy.
“Any pressure on dollar raises the cost of commodities – like edible oil, ghee, pulses etc imported for the common man,” he added. PM Imran further said that with an increase in revenue collection, the government would create extra space for spending on human development.
He said Pakistan was amongst one the top countries with the highest growth rates in the region, but today it was left behind. He hoped a move towards Digital Pakistan would help put Pakistan back on track.
Raast is part of Prime Minister Imran Khan Digital Pakistan’s vision to include poor segments of the society in formal economy. The initiative would be used not only to settle small-value retail payments in real-time but also to provide cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry including banks and fintechs.
