ISLAMABAD :Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday launched Pakistan’s first instant payment system – Raast – to enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously.

The prime minister, while addressing the gathering, termed the launch a major step forward by the State Bank of Pakistan towards Digital Pakistan, and said it would help include the low income groups and make them part of the mainstream economy.

He was optimist that it would go a long way in fighting poverty, particularly in the rural areas.

Raast is part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Digital Pakistan vision to include poor segments of the society in formal economy.

The faster payment system will be used not only to settle small-value retail payments in real time but also provide cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry, including banks and fin-techs.

Imran Khan said the instant payment system would not only document the economy, but also generate more taxes to help build the country.

He regretted that only two million people in a country of 220 million paid taxes, which was not enough to build hospitals and schools, and provide other basic facilities of life for the common man. Only 3,000 of the tax payers paid 70% of the tax, he added.

The prime minister said foreign remittances had been constantly on the rise for past five months, and had helped stabilize the Rupee.

After a gap of 17 years, the country’s current account had gone into surplus, and lowered pressure on the Rupee and played a key role in strengthening the national economy.

Any pressure on dollar raised the cost of commodities – like edible oil, ghee, pulses etc imported for the common man, he added