Govt Official Hints at Plan to Discourage Card Transaction Fee

The Head of Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Salman Sufi Sunday said that companies that ask citizens to pay a 2 percent processing charge for credit card transactions are working against a cashless economy policy. Sufi said that companies must not make profits by exploiting citizens. “We will be evaluating this practice and see how the government can discourage it,” he added. A total of 47.2 million payment cards were in circulation in the country at the quarter end of Q3FY22, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Out of the total cards in circulation, the share of debit cards stood at 62.3 percent, social welfare cards (23.3 percent), ATM-only cards (10.3 percent), credit cards (3.7 percent), and lastly, pre-paid cards (0.3 percent). It is pertinent to mention here that the government recently announced a series of public benefit banking reforms aimed at facilitating freelancers, corporate clients, and the general public.