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ISLAMABAD, Jan 29 (APP):The Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety on Thursday reviewed sweeping reforms in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), including the launch of a nationwide digital wallet system aimed at transforming beneficiary payments, strengthening financial inclusion, and eliminating leakages.
The Committee, which met at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) headquarters under the chairmanship of Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, was informed that the initiative would initially cover at least 10 million beneficiaries through biometrically verified digital accounts.
During a detailed briefing, the Governor State Bank of Pakistan told the Committee that a robust digital wallet framework is being developed to integrate newly created bank accounts with digitally enabled wallets, accessible through biometric verification.
He said the system is designed to ensure secure, direct, and transparent transfer of funds to beneficiaries.
Chairperson BISP Senator Rubina Khalid highlighted the transformative potential of the initiative, particularly for women beneficiaries, and raised serious concerns over the existing Point of Sale (POS) agent network.
She pointed to the presence of untrained and underage agents and urged the Committee to direct commercial banks to address these operational weaknesses that could undermine programme integrity.
The Committee observed that the core objective of the digital wallet system is to ensure the direct transmission of payment information and funds to beneficiaries, reducing dependence on intermediaries and curbing exploitation. Members stressed that interoperability would be a foundational principle of the new system, enabling beneficiaries to access services across multiple financial institutions and promoting competition among service providers.
The Secretary BISP informed the meeting that these would be fully mandated accounts, allowing beneficiaries to avail a broad range of formal banking services at minimal cost.
The Deputy Governor SBP briefed the Committee on operational timelines, stating that at least 10 million accounts would be migrated to the digital wallet platform. He disclosed that seven million SIMs had already been biometrically verified and issued.
These accounts, to be linked with participating financial institutions, are expected to become fully operational by the beginning of the July 2026 quarter, after which new disbursements will be routed through the digital system. He added that until June 2026, existing distribution channels would remain in use to allow for technological integration across banks.
On transaction costs, the Committee was assured that any charges agreed between SBP and partner banks would be significantly lower than the informal fees currently imposed by agents. Responding to queries on cost-sharing and service accessibility, representatives of major banks, including HBL, Bank of Punjab and leading microfinance banks, endorsed the Digital Sahulat Wallet initiative as a major step toward financial inclusion.
While acknowledging operational challenges and the non-commercial nature of the project, they reaffirmed their commitment to its success under SBP’s guidance.
The meeting also took up the issue of long-pending financial dues between BISP and its partner banks. Banking representatives raised concerns over payments outstanding for several years. The Secretary BISP assured the Committee that efforts were underway to clear the arrears from current funds and noted that real-time settlement mechanisms had already eased delays. The Committee directed BISP to submit a detailed report on outstanding liabilities, bank-wise and period-wise, for review at the next meeting.
Concluding the session, the Committee deferred a detailed review of the implementation status of recommendations from its 14th meeting to the next sitting.
The Chairman directed the State Bank of Pakistan to strictly adhere to the agreed timelines to ensure the timely and effective rollout of the digital wallet initiative. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to and from the Chair.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, Arshad Abdullah Vohra, Saba Talpur, Shahid Usman and Naima Kanwal. Chairperson BISP Senator Rubina Khalid, the Secretary Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Secretary BISP, and senior officers from BISP and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal were also present.