Govt collects Rs219.93b in passport fees

ISLAMABAD:

The government has collected more than Rs219.93 billion under the head of passport fees over the past five years, as it ruled out any reduction in the fee.

The cost of obtaining a new passport has nearly doubled as the authorities have discontinued machine-readable passports and shifted exclusively to e-passports for new applications nationwide.

The normal fee for a five-year, 36-page passport has risen from Rs4,500 to Rs9,000, while the urgent fee has increased from Rs7,500 to Rs15,000.

The change applies to Lahore and the rest of the country, although machine-readable passports already issued to citizens will remain valid until their expiry dates.

Under the new fee structure, a five-year, 36-page e-passport costs Rs9,000 under normal processing and Rs15,000 under urgent processing.

The supplied report puts the former fast-track fee for a machine-readable passport at Rs12,500 and gives the corresponding e-passport fee as Rs22,000. It says fees for 72-page passports will also increase in the same proportion.

In a written response to a question by Senator Talha Mahmood, the Ministry of Interior said no proposal to lower passport fees was currently under consideration.

It also provided a year-wise breakdown of the revenue collected from passport fees between the 2021-22 and 2025-26 financial years.

According to the ministry, Rs21.618 billion was collected in 2021-22, followed by Rs34.495 billion in 2022-23 and Rs50.906 billion in 2023-24.

The revenue increased to Rs64.392 billion in 2024-25, before standing at Rs48.52 billion in 2025-26. The total amount collected over the five years was Rs219.931 billion, the written response stated.