KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced that banks will not charge any kind of fee on donations for construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams.
In a circular issued, the central bank addressed the issue of the two dams for which the Supreme Court has taken initiative for collection of donations from the general public as well as Pakistanis living abroad.
“In order to facilitate the donations made to the Supreme Court’s Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams fund account through payment cards (debit, credit or prepaid cards), it has been decided that all issuing and acquiring banks in Pakistan shall not charge any service fee, including interchange fee, merchant discount rate and transaction fee, on such transactions”, the SBP circular stated.
Accordingly, all issuing and acquiring banks and microfinance banks or payment schemes were advised to meticulously comply with these instructions, said the SBP.
A good sum of Rs 1.58 billion has been collected in the fund for the construction of dams so far.
The country wise data shows that within Pakistan an amount of Rs 1,584,765,924 (Rs1.58 billion) was collected through bank branches, interbank transfers and mobile phone SMS service. NNI
