The National Information Technology Board wants to replace fragmented bank queues and manual challan desks with a central digital payment gateway. Through a new request for proposals, the federal IT body is seeking a single financial technology partner to execute the NITB digital payment integration project across public portals. If implemented according to the tender, citizens will be able to settle federal utility bills, taxes, licence fees, and certificate charges through one unified system.

The move comes at a time when the federal government is reviewing its broader administrative structure, even as the IT Ministry seeks reversal of decision to dissolve NITB so the department can continue managing core federal software infrastructure. Consolidating public dues into a common payment flow would remove the need for individual departments to negotiate separate banking partnerships for every digital public service.

What Is the Scope of the Proposed Public Payment System?

The NITB tender requires a single contracted vendor to connect public portals with multiple financial clearing rails at once. Rather than requiring users to visit separate departmental websites or print paper receipts for physical counters, the integrated system will handle transactions for utility bills, official taxes, departmental service charges, certifications, licences, and public applications.

As outlined in the NITB issues RFP to connect Raast and card payments across federal portals framework, the chosen vendor will operate as the central processing bridge behind government portals. The platform will manage payment routing, automated reconciliation, and instant confirmation back to the department issuing the invoice.

Which Financial Channels Must the System Support?

The contractor must provide a wide clearing interface that connects both digital-first bank customers and unbanked citizens using assisted counters. The tender stipulates that the gateway must support six specific channels:

  • Raast: Direct integration with the instant payment system owned and operated by the State Bank of Pakistan.
  • Debit and Credit Cards: Online card acquiring for domestic and international card schemes.
  • QR-Based Payments: Standardised code scanning aligned with national initiatives, similar to the broader push for Pakistan's digital payments QR codes on billing documents.
  • Request to Pay (RTP): Messaging rails that let a government agency dispatch a payment demand directly to an account holder for quick digital approval.
  • Interbank Funds Transfers (IBFT): Account-to-account clearing between different commercial banks.
  • Branchless Banking Agents: Cash-in options via physical branchless networks for citizens without active bank accounts.

What Operational and Settlement Rules Must Bidders Meet?

The tender enforces strict conditions on how public funds move after a citizen clicks pay. Crucially, the vendor will not be allowed to pool collected revenue inside private intermediary settlement accounts. Every rupee collected must route directly into NITB-designated bank accounts, preventing private vendors from earning float interest on government money while funds are in transit.

Operationally, the platform provider must provide 24/7 technical availability, dedicated administrative dashboards, automated dispute and chargeback processing, and operational staff training for government employees. A chargeback covers instances where a citizen disputes a card payment, requiring formal reversal processes that do not leave departmental balances unverified.

On data protection and compliance, NITB demands the following standards:

  • All transaction and citizen data must reside on servers hosted inside Pakistan.
  • Full compliance monitoring for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT).
  • Multi-factor authentication and data encryption across every API endpoint.
  • Regular vulnerability assessments and third-party penetration testing.

Who Is Eligible to Bid on the Procurement?

NITB has restricted the bidding pool to institutional financial entities. Participation is open only to scheduled commercial banks and fintech companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) that hold active licences from the State Bank of Pakistan.

Bidders must show an established market presence. The tender requires at least five years of verifiable operational experience in digital banking solutions or online payment integration, along with existing deployments for at least five major commercial clients. Technical qualification also requires valid PCI-DSS certification for card security, ISO 27001 accreditation or an equivalent information security audit, and an active or committed operational connection to the central Raast switch.

How Will Proposals Be Judged and Priced?

Procurement follows a single-stage, two-envelope selection mechanism. NITB will first evaluate technical qualifications, including architecture, certifications, and compliance credentials. Financial bids will remain sealed and will be opened only for the applicants that clear the technical hurdle.

The financial evaluation introduces an inherent pricing tension. According to the tender terms, scoring will favour vendors that offer the lowest transaction charges to citizens while simultaneously offering the highest revenue share back to the NITB. Because transaction processing costs and board revenue shares are drawn from the same fee base, a contractor offering a larger cut to the government has narrower room to reduce the processing charge paid by the public.

What Details Did the Tender Document Leave Out?

While the architectural and regulatory specifications in the tender are comprehensive, the procurement document omits several basic commercial markers. It does not publish expected transaction counts, projected monetary volumes, or a phased implementation schedule. Furthermore, the document does not name the specific federal departments or utility providers that will be migrated first.

These operational gaps make it difficult for bidders to project clearing margins accurately. The commercial viability of the contract depends heavily on whether initial rollouts cover high-volume services like federal utility bills or start with lower-volume administrative permits. The lack of published scoring weights between citizen charges and the NITB revenue split also makes it difficult for financial institutions to assess how the board will balance public affordability against departmental revenue generation.

The broader initiative aligns directly with the Prime Minister's Cashless Pakistan campaign coordinated by the Finance Division, which recently confirmed that electronic payment acceptance points among domestic merchants grew fourfold over the last fiscal year. Whether this tender establishes an affordable public utility for digital billing or creates a new commercial revenue mechanism for the board will depend entirely on how the financial envelopes are scored when the bids are unsealed.

Source: PhoneWorld