Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani has directed the State Bank of Pakistan to prepare a working paper for the approval of the Raast QR Merchant Discount Rate scheme to further promote digital payments across the country.

He gave these directions while chairing a follow-up meeting of the Cashless Pakistan Committee in Islamabad to review progress on the Prime Minister's cashless initiative.

The meeting was informed that active merchants accepting digital payments have increased from 0.5 million to 2.03 million, while the overall volume of digital payments in the country has doubled in one year.

The meeting was also informed that, from November 16, all payments for Asaan Assignment Accounts across the country will be made through the Raast digital system.

The Minister of State directed the relevant authorities to refine the Prime Minister's dashboard indicators to capture the value and volume of digital payments, as well as the number of unique account users.