Islamabad’s government has set 31 December as the date by which every shop in the capital, from pushcart sellers to big commercial centres, should be taking digital payments. Offices of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration stop accepting cash even sooner, after 30 November.
Talal Chaudhry, the interior ministry’s state minister, led the Cashless Islamabad meeting where this was agreed. The CDA chairman, Sohail Ashraf, and bank representatives sat in. By the minister’s count, 26,000 Islamabad merchants already accept digital payments.
For shopkeepers this means QR codes. Dawn interviewed Chaudhry, who described one QR system for sellers of every size. QR payments are being extended to every shopping mall and Class-III market in the capital, he said, and hotels, guest houses, petrol pumps and restaurants are getting the same system.
Banks have a job in it too. Chaudhry told commercial banks to run awareness campaigns for both merchants and customers, and to offer the biggest discounts and incentives they can to shopkeepers, traders and shoppers who pay through Raast QR codes. Shops that already take digital payments include Islamabad’s weekly bazaars, the CDA’s One-Window Facilitation Centre and the metro and electric bus services, according to the minister. M-Tag and digital parking are the next services he named.
The cash ban for government counters was the first part of this push, when CDA and ICT offices were told to stop taking cash from 30 November. The new decision widens it from government counters to private shops, which is the group that will notice it most.
For shopkeepers the cost of accepting QR payments matters as much as the deadline. The finance ministry has said the government will keep subsidising Raast QR fees for shops, so the incentives Chaudhry asked banks to offer would come on top of that support.
Chaudhry said the plan follows the directions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, and that it should make payments more transparent and tax monitoring easier. The first date to watch is 30 November, when the cash counters at CDA and ICT offices close.
