Govt Orders Independent Audit of Cashless Economy Initiative 2025

The government has announced that it will commission an independent review and audit of its flagship Cashless Economy Initiative 2025, a transformative reform program aimed at building a digitally enabled and transparent financial system in Pakistan.

Background of the Initiative

Launched earlier this year, the initiative is regarded as one of the country’s most ambitious economic transformation agendas. It seeks to:

• Enhance transparency in financial transactions
• Broaden financial inclusion across all segments of society
• Improve efficiency in public service delivery
• Expand the national tax base
• Minimize leakages in government payments

Since June 2025, a high-level committee chaired by the Prime Minister has been monitoring the program, conducting weekly progress reviews. To accelerate progress, three functional committees have been established focusing on:

1. Digital Payments Adoption and Innovation
2. Digital Public Infrastructure
3. Government Payments

Key Components of the Program

The initiative includes digitizing all government-to-person (G2P) and person-to-government (P2G) payments, while encouraging retailers nationwide to adopt digital payment systems. Major digital infrastructures—such as Raast, Pakistan’s instant payment system, and QR-based payment solutions—are also being expanded for broader use.

Independent Review and Audit

Given the scale and complexity of the program, the government will hire an international consultancy firm, selected through a competitive bidding process, to conduct an independent evaluation.

According to official documents, the performance audit will cover:

• Measuring progress against targets and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Assessing compliance with policy directives and institutional arrangements
• Evaluating the effectiveness of implementation strategies, resource allocation, and coordination mechanisms
• Reviewing governance frameworks and identifying risks or gaps in execution
• Analyzing quantitative outcomes, including:
  • Number of users onboarded
  • Merchant adoption rates
  • Digital transaction volumes
  • Geographic reach of cashless services
• Examining trends in Raast transactions, QR-code payments, digital wallets, and government digital payments

The consultancy will also review the functioning of the three oversight committees, assess public-private sector coordination, and evaluate internal and external monitoring systems.

Way Forward

Officials confirmed that the selected firm will be responsible for proposing actionable recommendations to strengthen the ongoing phase of the program while shaping strategies for future rollouts under the broader Cashless Pakistan agenda. This will include suggestions for timely and effective execution and possible new interventions to ensure the long-term sustainability of a fully digitized economy.