Tech experts seek alternative payment channels

Tech experts and stakeholders have urged the government to continue its facilitation for digital entrepreneurs and freelancers and provide them facilities for funding transactions in terms of international payment gateway or alternative payment channels. The government has been asked for establishing a facility for freelancers to receive international payments. Pakistani IT entrepreneurs, e-commerce traders and freelancers receive payments from various sources, including Payoneer – a global payment integrator platform that also provides services in Pakistan. However, it recently revised its charges upwards adding to miseries for online workers.

Under the new pricing structure, it slapped charges on free services including the transfer and inflow of funds to non-local currency bank accounts such as the US dollar, euro or British pound and revised up charges on the withdrawal of funds by 50%.

After capturing the freelancing community and becoming the only payment option integrated with four major financial institutions, Payoneer's sudden 50% fee hike seems unfair as freelancers are already facing challenges to make hard-earned money, while trying to evolve from a freelancer to an entrepreneur, said Pakistan Freelancers Association (Pafla) Chairman Ibrahim Amin.

The government must invite alternative platforms to create healthy competition and safeguard the community from such sudden one-sided moves, he said. The banking regulator should also work to establish a payment gateway for cross-border fund transfer to facilitate freelancers and digital workers.

In Pakistan, a freelancer pays a fixed share to the freelancing platforms. He or she pays a fee to payment service providers and a tax to the government to get final payment in his/her pocket, he remarked.

"A significant majority of freelancers are self-trained and committed who are not making money for their families and reducing poverty, but serving our country by bringing in precious foreign exchange," the Pafla chief said. Payoneer has been providing services to Pakistani freelancers and businesses with payments for over 10 years. Over the period, it has widened its customer base with a gradual addition of service partners, including JazzCash, Faysal Bank, Meezan Bank and Habib Bank. Its customers can invoice clients and customers abroad and receive money in their local bank account.

Payoneer is one of the payment methods on freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr having connectivity with more than 150 countries for money transactions.

IT exporter Dr Noman Ahmad Said said the freelancing and remote work culture is evolving across the globe and Pakistan too, hence, the government should take it very seriously to facilitate this community to attract foreign exchange reserves. He said the payment system is a major challenge for Pakistani freelancers and IT entrepreneurs, hence, the government should explore multiple options through collaborations with various service providers and commercial banks, including introducing services like Paypal.

The government must design an out-of-the-box policy for facilitating the freelancing community by subsidising service fee for fund transfer as similar to the allocation of funds for aiding overseas Pakistanis, added Noman Said, who once led one of the top-performing freelancer companies on a global platform. He mentioned that the number of freelancers in Pakistan is increasing with many private and public sector institutions and non-government organisations (NGOs) are providing free training and courses to learners of different ages and genders in different cities of the country.

On top of that, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is working on setting up a cross-border payment facility through RAAST and Buna Payment System of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) for the facilitation of overseas Pakistanis to transfer remittances easily and affordably from Gulf countries.