The story in brief
- 1A State Bank of Pakistan circular, reported on 3 August 2026, gives all petrol pumps until 31 January 2027 to make Raast QR payments fully operational.
- 2For card purchases of fuel, the reported merchant discount rate is capped at Rs1 per litre and the interchange fee at 20 paisas per litre.
- 3The State Bank’s governor said in July 2026 that retail digital transactions rose from about 6.9 billion to nearly 12 billion in a year, and merchants accepting digital payments from about 500,000 to over 2 million.
- 4The reports do not mention penalties for pumps that miss the deadline.
- 5Businesses that take payments should check that their till records QR and wallet payments separately from cash, and fleets should expect more digital fuel receipts.
The State Bank of Pakistan has told all petrol pumps to make Raast QR payments fully operational by 31 January 2027, according to a circular reported by Daily Pakistan on 3 August 2026. The same report says card payments for fuel carry a merchant discount rate capped at Rs1 per litre. It is part of a wider push to make Pakistan's retail payments less dependent on cash.
What was reported
According to Daily Pakistan, citing an SBP circular:
- Who: all petrol pumps nationwide.
- Deadline: 31 January 2027, to implement the Raast QR code-based payment system and make it fully operational and available to customers.
- Card fees for fuel: a maximum merchant discount rate of Rs1 per litre, and an interchange reimbursement fee capped at 20 paisas per litre.
- Not stated: the circular's date, and any penalty for pumps that miss the deadline.
The wider picture
The pumps are one part of a bigger campaign. At the July 2026 launch of an HBL, UnionPay and PayPak co-badged debit card, State Bank Governor Jameel Ahmad gave these figures, as reported by Profit and ProPakistani:
- Retail digital transactions: up from about 6.9 billion to nearly 12 billion over the past year.
- Merchants accepting digital payments: up from around 500,000 to more than 2 million.
- Mobile banking app users: nearly 137 million.
- Workers' remittances credited digitally: up from about 80% to 92%.
These are the governor's figures as reported, and we could not check them on the State Bank's own site.
Government payments are part of the same push. In September 2025, Profit reported plans to digitise federal and provincial payments by June 2026 and payments by state-owned enterprises by December 2026. That report's headline and body disagreed about the final date, and we did not find a later report saying whether the deadline was met.
What it means for businesses
If you take payments, more customers will arrive expecting to pay by QR or phone. A few practical checks:
- Record each payment method separately. QR and wallet payments never enter the cash drawer. If your point of sale treats them as cash, the drawer will not reconcile. We have seen this bug in a real build, as we describe in our offline restaurant POS guide.
- Match every payment to a bill. Digital payments leave a trail, which helps at month-end only if your system links each one to a sale.
- Ask your bank which codes it supports, and what the fees are, before you promise customers anything.
- If you run vehicles, expect more digital fuel receipts. They are easier to match to trips than paper slips, and a fuel monitoring system can do that matching against tank readings.
We build POS systems and fleet software that handle cash, card and wallet payments as separate methods. Tell us how you take payments today and we will say what we would check first.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
By 31 January 2027, according to a State Bank of Pakistan circular reported by Daily Pakistan on 3 August 2026. The pumps must have the system fully operational and available to customers. The report does not mention penalties.
The same report says the merchant discount rate is capped at Rs1 per litre for fuel bought with payment cards, and the interchange reimbursement fee at 20 paisas per litre. It does not give fees for Raast QR payments themselves.
The State Bank’s governor said in July 2026 that merchants accepting digital payments grew from about 500,000 to more than 2 million over the past year, as reported by Profit and ProPakistani. These are his figures, and we could not check them on the State Bank’s own site.
We could not confirm it. A September 2025 report gave June 2026 for federal and provincial payments and December 2026 for state-owned enterprises, but its headline and body disagreed on the final date, and we found no later report saying whether the deadline was met.
Check that your point of sale records QR and wallet payments as their own payment methods, so the cash drawer reconciles, and that each payment can be matched to a bill. Ask your bank which QR codes it supports.
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- #Pakistan
- #Raast
- #Digital Payments
- #State Bank of Pakistan
- #Fuel
