ISLAMABAD - Pakistan E Commerce Market crosses Rs 100 billion mark as per the report of the State Bank of Pakistan.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) figures, excluding cash-on-delivery (CoD) sales, e-commerce sales stood at Rs18.7 billion by the end of June 2018 while the total size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market in 2018 was Rs99.3 billion.
The number of registered e-commerce merchants rose by 260pc, whereas e-commerce payments more than doubled in the last 12 months.
Sources said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had asked the Commerce Division to frame a comprehensive national ‘E-commerce Policy Framework’ in consultation with all the stakeholders, including the private sector.
Following the orders, the Commerce Division had conducted extensive consultations with stakeholders from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), SBP, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Ministry of IT and Telecom, provincial revenue authorities and the private sector to prepare the draft policy framework.
They had also constituted five bodies to deliberate on the prospective framework.
These included the National e-Commerce Advisory Council, National E-commerce Policy Board, National E-commerce Policy Unit, Five Working Groups on Taxation, Payments Infrastructure, Regulatory Framework, Logistics and e-Commerce & WTO.
Sources stated that the formulation of the e-commerce policy is a step towards fulfilling the government’s commitment to promote and encourage businesses, especially small traders, so that they could go online and foster holistic growth of e-commerce in Pakistan.