Google suspends Carrier Paid Apps for Pakistan on nonpayment of outstanding dues. Despite frequent assurances from the Ministry of IT and Telecom.
Download option for paid apps via mobile phone accounts delay in the country.
Apparently this suspension only relates to local transactions and the Google Play Store still accepts credit card payments when downloading a paid app.
Last week, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had blocked US$34 million in payments to Foreign Service providers. Due to the SBP’s decision, many people banned from downloading paid Google Play Store apps using their mobile balance as a form of payment, which initiated pandemonium in the local tech industry.
When the central bank stopped the direct carrier billing (DCB) system, all the payments made through mobile operators to Foreign Service providers like Google, Amazon, and Meta became stuck.
In light of the nation’s recent economic problems, the government later decided to allow Google transactions for a month whereas at the same time creating an outline for a reliable payment system to stop any liquidity lacks.
Now, the Federal Ministry of Finance has agreed to the proposal of IT Minister Amin Ul Haque to change a mechanism and make payments beside Google App services. Anyway, the IT minister at the time also said that the SBP directed to delay the implementation of the DCB mechanism policy for a month.
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Google suspends Carrier Paid Apps for Pakistan. Amin Ul Haque specified that the telecom providers given a month to adopt payment procedures.
The IT minister said that a letter asking Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to make the payments and set a deadline sent in reply to an appeal for assistance from the telecom providers.