Islamabad: 1LINK has proposed tax incentives, cashback offers and other measures to accelerate the adoption of PayPak, Pakistan’s domestic payment card scheme, as the country seeks to reduce reliance on international card networks such as Visa and Mastercard.
The proposals, shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), include making PayPak cards mandatory for government employees’ salary accounts and beneficiaries of government subsidies and social safety-net programmes.
1LINK has also recommended that PayPak cards be used for public-sector payments and integrated into mass-transit payment systems to expand the domestic scheme’s reach.
To encourage greater usage, the company has proposed tax relief and incentives for Point-of-Sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions conducted through PayPak cards. It has also suggested that public-facing government service centres, including the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Excise and Passport Offices, install PoS machines capable of accepting PayPak cards.
The proposals further call for discounts, cashback and loyalty rewards on PayPak transactions, particularly for utility bill payments, fuel purchases, public transport and other government-related payments.
The recommendations come as the SBP seeks to strengthen Pakistan’s domestic payment infrastructure and increase the share of transactions processed through national payment rails, particularly PayPak and Raast.
The central bank said it has introduced various policy, regulatory and market development measures to strengthen the PayPak ecosystem. These include co-badged PayPak cards that enable domestic and international transactions, expansion of PayPak acceptance for e-commerce, promotional incentives and public awareness campaigns.
According to the SBP, these measures have improved PayPak’s functionality, merchant acceptance and transaction volumes, while also supporting the expansion of Raast Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments.
The SBP said the government allocated PKR3.5 billion for a Raast QR-code subsidy programme in FY2025-26. The programme helped increase daily P2M transactions from around 60,000 in June 2025 to approximately 1.1 million by June 2026.
The central bank said it would continue promoting merchant onboarding and QR-based digital payments to expand the country’s digital payments ecosystem.
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