Asad Umar Discusses Options for Bringing PayPal to Pakistan

Finance Minister Asad Umar has directed for establishing a contact with PayPal as well for reviewing rules/requirements pertaining to Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) in order to encourage new entrants to the digital payment providers space.

Asad Umar chaired a high level meeting to review the IT exports and Digital Payments to drive digital inclusion.

Rolling out a structured process to address major issues and challenges being faced by the IT and Telecom Industries to drive the socio economic agenda of the government, Asad Umar chaired a high level meeting of GoP stakeholders at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Focus of the meeting was to discuss impediments and bottlenecks being faced by the Information Technology (IT) sector especially in the digital payments domain and to decide on measures to settle the issues.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for IT & Telecom Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Law Minister Dr. Mohammad Farogh Naseem, Secretary (Finance), Secretary (IT), Secretary (Cabinet), Secretary (Privatization), Representative of State Bank of Pakistan and technical experts from Ministry of IT & Telecom.

The Finance Minister directed that a team of stakeholders from Ministry of IT & Telecom and State Bank of Pakistan may establish a contact with PayPal with due engagement of Pakistani Ambassador to the US and renowned Pakistani expatriates working in Silicon Valley.

The Finance Minister also directed SBP to review rules/requirements pertaining to Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) specifically related to threshold for minimum initial capital requirements in order to encourage new entrants to the digital payment providers space and expedite the work on Unified Payment Interface & National Payment Gateway already underway in collaboration with Private sector.

To improve official reporting of IT/ITeS export revenues, he further directed State Bank of Pakistan to review the mechanism in place for 30% retention of foreign currency and suggest further facilitative measures in this regard including repatriation of the export remittances for offshore business needs of the IT industry.


  • The PSO/PSP licensing is for local
    Companies to set up PayPal equivalents. If Mr Asad Umar is so desperate for PayPal, then just don’t issue pso PSP licenses to local Pakistani companies. If mr Umar is going to so blatantly favor PayPal over local companies getting the PSP licenses then better not issue any locals licenses and not waste their investment.

  • Yeh to 10 saal se sun rahay hain k Amazon aur Paypal anay wala hai,,,
    Na hi Paypal, Amazon aye ga aur na hi Pakistani DTH..

  • When dr (so called) khalid maqbool Siddiqi (MQM) is Minister of IT &Telecom. Asad umar can say whatever he wants the only thing I would do is buy a kite with loads and loads of strings and keep dheeling.


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >