The State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) has clarified that no Google payments had been blocked.
The central bank said this in response to reports in some sections of the media that claimed that the Google Play Store services would not be available in Pakistan from December this time owing to the remitment of $34 million to transnational service providers.
The report said, “The direct carrier billing(DCB) medium was discontinued by the central bank after which a payment of $34 million on a periodic basis through mobile companies to transnational service providers, including Google, Amazon, and Meta, got stuck.”
The SBP clarified in a recent announcement, “The fact is that in order to grease the domestic realities, SBP specified certain Information Technology(IT) related services, which similar realities can acquire from abroad for their own use and make foreign exchange payments there against over to USD 1,00,000 per tab.”
“Similar services include Satellite Transponder, International Bandwidth/Internet/Private Line Services, Software License/conservation/Support, and service to use electronic media and databases. realities desirous of exercising this option designate a bank, which is approved by SBP one time. latterly, after designation, similar payments can be reused through the designated bank, without any farther nonsupervisory blessing,” it stated.
The SBP, still, said that during recent off-point reviews, it was observed that in addition to exercising the forenamed medium to remit finances for IT-related services for their own use, Telcos were remitting the bulk of the finances for videotape gaming, entertainment content, etc. bought by their guests using airtime, under Direct Carrier Billing(DCB).
DCB is, in general, an online mobile payment system, which allows druggies to make purchases by charging payments to their mobile phone carrier bill, the central bank explained.
“The Telcos were allowing their guests to buy over-mentioned products through airtime and also remitting finances abroad reflecting similar deals as payments for the accession of IT-related services. therefore, in effect, the Telcos were acting as interposers and payment aggregators by easing the accession of services by their subscribers. thus, in view of the violation of foreign exchange regulations, SBP abandoned the designation of banks of Telcos for similar payments. still, to grease their licit IT-related payments, Telcos have been advised through their banks to resubmit their requests,” the SBP statement says.
Still, including a telco, intends to operate as a conciliator/payment aggregator and similar arrangement involves exodus of foreign exchange, “If any reality.”
