Following the Ministry of Finance’s decision to allow blocked payments to international service providers, including Google, on the advise of IT Minister Aminul Haque, Pakistan averted the suspension of paid Google Play mobile apps on Thursday.
A $34 million payment suspension by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to foreign service providers might have prevented inward mobile users from downloading paid Google Play Store services using their cell balance as a source of payment starting on December 1, 2022.
After the SBP stopped using the direct carrier billing (DCB) mechanism, a $34 million payment to foreign service providers like Google, Amazon, and Meta was put on hold.
Using their mobile phone carrier bill as a form of payment, users of the DCB online mobile payment system can make purchases.
According to Geo, customers of telecommunications firms can buy these products using airtime and send money abroad to pay for IT-related services.
However, Tariq Bajwa, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Finance, got in touch with Haque and expressed his thoughts on the payments that had been halted.
The Finance Ministry agreed to distribute the payments on schedule, the IT minister later confirmed.
Insisting that “paid Google Play apps will not be suspended in Pakistan,” he said that the Finance Ministry had instructed the SBP to postpone for one month the implementation of the policy that had blocked payments.
He stated that the payment method must be implemented by telecom companies within a month.
According to the IT minister, the ministry has written to the finance minister, Ishaq Dar, requesting a timeline for the implementation of the telecom operators’ request for help from the government. Haque commended Dar and Bajwa for their prompt judgement.
