The SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) has scraped mandatory fees of 1.5%. The fees was charged by banks from merchants on financial transactions done via credit and debit cards.
The State Bank of Pakistan has caped maximum limit of the fees at 2.5%, as per notification issued recently.
The central bank made it obligatory for all e-commerce merchants and online payment receivers in Pakistan to start accepting payments via cards maximum by 30 June, 2023.
“Lower range (minimum fee) of merchant discount rate (MDR), ie 1.5%, is abolished…in order to facilitate the acceptance of card-based payments,” read the SBP notification.
“All e-commerce/ online payment acquirers operating in Pakistan shall enable acceptance of domestic payment scheme (DPS) card for card-not-present (CNP) transactions on their respective payment gateways by June 30, 2023.”
