
12 cities nationwide: JazzCash facilitating QR-based payments at 27 cattle markets
ISLAMABAD: JazzCash is facilitating QR-based payments at 27 cattle markets across 12 cities nationwide -- initiative replaces traditional cash transactions with seamless digital payments, ensuring safety, transparency, and convenience for cattle farmers, merchants, and buyers alike.
Following its success last year—facilitating the most widespread interoperable RAAST QR digital payments campaign and contributing over one-third of all QR transactions in the industry—JazzCash is once again enabling secure, efficient, and cashless transactions during this Eidul Azha season.
In line with the State Bank of Pakistan's vision to promote digital financial inclusion, JazzCash is facilitating QR-based payments at 27 cattle markets across 12 cities nationwide. This initiative replaces traditional cash transactions with seamless digital payments, ensuring safety, transparency, and convenience for cattle farmers, merchants, and buyers alike.
The project aims to integrate rural and semi-urban communities into the digital economy, expanding access to essential financial services and fostering economic empowerment.
Adding to its innovative offerings, JazzCash has partnered with Saylani Welfare Trust to launch a digital Qurbani service through the JazzCash app. This service allows customers to conveniently select their preferred Eid day and pickup location or opt to have the meat distributed on their behalf, making the Qurbani process more accessible and hassle-free.
JazzCash hosts over 22 million RAAST IDs and an extensive network of more than 535,000 merchants. The platform facilitates the digitization of over PKR 20 billion in QR transactions every month, underscoring its pivotal role in driving the adoption of RAAST payments and advancing Pakistan's fintech landscape.
'JazzCash is committed to empowering communities by making digital payments accessible, secure, and convenient. Our initiatives during this EidulAzha season reflect our dedication to financial inclusion, helping Pakistanis embrace the benefits of a digital economy,' said Khayyam Siddiqi, Head of Communication, JazzCash.
JazzCash, Pakistan's leading fintech platform serving nearly 50 million customers, continues to spearhead the country's digital payment revolution, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Seasonal butchers on streets with knives, cleavers
Citizens across the city are finding it difficult to get professional butchers to perform the Sunnah of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS). Professional butchers have increased their rates by 30 to 50 per cent this year. Babu Qureshi, a professional butcher from Liaquatabad, explained that the rates for slaughtering animals vary depending on the area and the weight or size of the animal. He noted that professional butchers typically stop taking bookings three days before Eidul Azha. This year, the minimum charge for slaughtering a large, lighter-weight animal on the first day of Eid ranges from Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 and above. On the second day, the rate drops to around Rs18,000, and on the third day, it decreases further to approximately Rs15,000. Rates for heavier animals with excess weight are negotiated before the slaughtering. Professional butchers have taken bookings for multiple animals at the neighbourhood level instead of single animals. Last year, professional butchers charged Rs15,000 to Rs25,000 or more for slaughtering a large animal. This year, the rates for goats and sheep range from Rs8,000 to Rs15,000. On the second and third days, the rates for small animals decrease by 30 to 50 per cent. Qureshi added that professional butchers have prioritised bookings in upscale neighbourhoods where compensation is generally higher. In contrast, many middle- and lower-income areas are turning to seasonal butchers due to the limited availability of skilled professionals. Seasonal butchers-who work on a daily wage basis and take up butchery only during Eid-have stepped in to fill the gap. They offer their services at 30 to 50 per cent lower rates than the professional butchers. These seasonal butchers often work in groups and are more in demand in middle-class areas, where they get better wages. Rush for sharpening People are seen purchasing new tools and getting the old ones sharpened for the preparation of meat after the slaughter. As a result, shops sharpening knives and cleavers are overloaded with huge footfall of citizens. At Al-Karam Square, Mohsin Ali, the owner of a shop that sells and sharpens such tools, said that a wide variety of knives, cleavers (Bugdah) and skewers are in great demand. The prices of new tools for household use have increased by Rs100 to Rs400. Different types of knives are sold for Rs400 to Rs2,500 or more, while the price of a Bugdah ranges from Rs800 to Rs3,000. Most people opt to sharpen their old tools, with sharpening services costing Rs150 to Rs200 per tool. Some individuals purchase tools worth up to Rs3,000 for preparing sacrificial meat. Slaughtering accessories fly off shelves Exponential quantities of date palm mats and baskets were sold for Eidul Azha sacrifice purposes, with vendors reporting brisk sales in the days leading up to the festival. Amir Uddin, a vendor selling mats, baskets, and wooden chopping blocks at Gharibabad, explained that date palm mats are typically used to spread sacrificial meat, while baskets are used for distributing it. This year, on Eid, mats of different sizes were sold for Rs500 to Rs1,000, and baskets were sold for Rs200 to Rs400. Meanwhile, chopping blocks were sold at Rs100 per kilogram, with the smallest ones selling for Rs500 to Rs800. These items are made of wood and are essential for meat distribution and storage. People who perform the Sunnah of sacrifice purchase these items to facilitate the distribution of meat among family, friends, and the needy. Temporary stalls were set up across various city areas to sell these products, providing temporary employment and additional income for many people, including street vendors and artisans who craft these traditional items.


Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Govt walks a tight rope
FDI in various sectors, including power, oil and gas exploration, financial, and petroleum refinery sectors, witnessed a 6.4-fold increase, reaching $211 million in December 2023 compared to $33 million last year. photo: afp Listen to article The government will walk a tight fiscal rope in the next fiscal year, too, as it plans to unveil the second budget on Tuesday envisaging a federal budget deficit of Rs6.2 trillion or 4.8% of size of the economy. The total size of the budget is expected to be around Rs17.6 trillion, which is 7.3% less than this year's original budget due to relatively lower allocations for the interest payments in fiscal year 2025-26, according to the Finance Ministry's budget estimates. The government sources said that the proposed budget deficit is 2% of the GDP or Rs2.3 trillion less than the original estimates of this fiscal year. The deficit may still be appearing large in absolute terms. But it is, for the first time, lower than this year's gap, both in terms of size of the economy and in absolute numbers. The tight budget envisages fiscal consolidation of 2% of GDP, as the government is planning to set the budget deficit target at 4.8% of GDP, the sources said. This will be 2% of GDP or Rs2.6 trillion lower than this fiscal year's target. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will deliver his second budget speech on June 10. The expenditure path is known to be narrower and predicted. However, it seems that the government may again adopt the business as usual approach on the revenue front, which is unsustainable and puts the country's marginalized salaried class and corporate sector at risk of being insolvent. The fiscal consolidation is the need of the hour but it will drastically reduce the government's ability to spend due to no space left for any productive spending after making payments for the interest servicing and defense. However, whatever space is left is not prudently used and the sources said that the quality of spending becomes poorer with large allocations for provincial projects, discretionary spending on the schemes recommended by the Parliamentarians at the expense of space technology and atomic energy programmes. The sources said that the fiscal consolidation is again planned to be achieved by putting more burden on the people, directly as well as indirectly. The government is projecting gross federal revenues at record Rs19.4 trillion for next fiscal year, higher by Rs1.6 trillion. The gross revenues are based on the Federal Board of Revenue's tax target of Rs14.13 trillion and Rs5.2 trillion non-tax revenues. The non-tax income will mainly come from the Petroleum Levy, which the government wants to increases to nearly Rs100 per liter, and the profit by the State Bank of Pakistan. The sources said that like this fiscal year, the FBR may remain the weak area in the next fiscal year, too, despite the required growth to achieve the goal will be far lower than this year. The new tax collection target will become challenging from first day of next fiscal year because the FBR will not be able to achieve even the downward revised target of Rs12.3 trillion, said the sources. This will erode the base of new tax target. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tried everything to put the FBR house in order but all those measures backfired. The FBR's ability to predict revenue estimates is also not up to the mark and this year the World Bank experts helped in projecting numbers, said the sources. Out of the Rs14.1 trillion FBR tax collection, the provinces will get Rs8 trillion as their shares in the federal taxes under the National Finance Commission award, the sources added. This leaves the federal government with Rs11.4 trillion net revenues for next fiscal year, which will not be sufficient to meet the interest payments and inclusive all defense spending, according to the government sources. The government will borrow Rs6.2 trillion in the next fiscal year to finance the Rs17.6 trillion total federal budget. Under the IMF programme, the four provinces are also required to save Rs1.33 trillion from their revenues as cash surplus to bring down the national budget deficit to Rs4.8 trillion or 3.7% of GDP, the sources said. This is steeper fiscal consolidation and would require all the five governments to meet all their revenue and expenditures related targets. The four provinces have indicated nearly Rs2.9 trillion for their development spending in the next fiscal year. This is Rs850 billion more than what the IMF has allowed to spend to the four provinces under the national fiscal framework. Punjab has indicated Rs1.2 trillion record spending on development, followed by Rs995 billion by Sindh.


Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Azma lauds CM's policies: Green herbs available to public at affordable prices
LAHORE: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said that for the first time in Punjab's history, green herbs are available to the public at affordable prices ahead of Eid-ul-Adha. She said this is a practical example of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's pro-people policies and good governance. According to Bokhari, the Chief Minister ensured that there was no increase in the prices of essential commodities before Eid, nor was there any shortage in the markets. 'This is the first time a Chief Minister has personally monitored the situation round the clock to control prices and activate the market mechanism,' she said. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025