The number of QR-enabled merchants in Pakistan increased by 245% during fiscal year 2025-26, reaching 3.8 million compared with 1.1 million a year earlier, reflecting a sharp expansion in digital payment acceptance across businesses. According to data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), these QR-enabled merchants processed 297 million transactions during FY26 with a combined value of Rs1.6 trillion. The figures represent a substantial increase from FY25, when QR-based transactions stood at more than 86 million with a total value of Rs234 billion. On average, QR-enabled merchants processed around 0.8 million transactions each day during FY26, while the average daily transaction value reached approximately Rs5.5 billion. The rapid increase indicates that QR-based payment acceptance is becoming an increasingly important part of Pakistan’s retail payment infrastructure, allowing merchants to receive digital payments without depending exclusively on conventional card-based point-of-sale terminals.
The expansion was supported by the government’s subsidy programme introduced under the Prime Minister’s Cashless Economy initiative to encourage merchants to adopt Raast Person-to-Merchant (P2M) QR payments. The government allocated Rs3.5 billion for eligible Raast P2M QR transactions conducted between September 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Under the programme, a subsidy equivalent to 0.5% of the value of each eligible transaction was provided, subject to a maximum of Rs100 per transaction. The subsidy was divided equally between the merchant’s financial institution and the customer’s financial institution, covering the acquiring and issuing sides of the payment. SBP regulations also allowed participating financial institutions to charge up to 0.25% of the transaction value for merchant onboarding and servicing. The programme was specifically designed to encourage financial institutions to expand merchant acceptance and enable businesses to receive digital payments through Raast QR codes.
The growth in QR payments forms part of a wider expansion of Pakistan’s digital payment ecosystem. During FY26, formal retail payment transactions reached 14.3 billion with a combined value of Rs673 trillion, while digital channels accounted for more than 92% of retail payment transaction volume. The SBP’s payment data also showed that the point-of-sale network expanded by 49% to 337,791 merchants, while e-commerce merchants increased to 23,356. At the same time, branchless banking mobile app users reached 99.1 million and banks’ mobile application users stood at 30.4 million. The expansion of QR acceptance is particularly relevant for smaller businesses because QR-based payment infrastructure can provide merchants with another route to accept digital payments at physical points of sale. The figures also point to a broader shift in consumer and merchant behaviour, as mobile banking, wallets, QR payments, POS transactions and e-commerce increasingly form part of everyday financial activity.
The sharp increase in QR-enabled merchants could also contribute to broader financial inclusion by bringing more businesses into formal digital payment networks. With 3.8 million merchants processing Rs1.6 trillion through QR payments during FY26, the scale of adoption suggests that QR technology is moving beyond limited use cases and becoming an established payment option for businesses and consumers. The government’s subsidy programme provided an initial financial incentive for merchant onboarding, while Raast provides the underlying instant-payment infrastructure for participating institutions. The SBP has continued to promote Raast P2M as part of efforts to expand digital payment acceptance, while the wider growth of mobile banking and digital transaction channels is creating additional opportunities for merchants to move away from cash-based transactions. The FY26 figures therefore mark a significant development for Pakistan’s payments sector, although sustaining adoption will depend on continued merchant participation, consumer usage, reliable payment infrastructure and the availability of cost-effective digital payment services after targeted incentives end.
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