Google Play Store services to be unavailable in Pakistan from Dec 1

[JackTheRipper]

The picture shows Google Play Store logo. — AFP

• SBP suspends payment of $34m to int'l service providers.
• Users will have to download Google, int'l apps through credit cards, debit cards.
• Authorities concerned request central bank to reverse its decision.

ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan suspended the payment of $34 million to international service providers after which mobile users will not be able to download Google Play Store services from December 01, 2022, The News reported Saturday.

The direct carrier billing (DCB) mechanism was discontinued by the central bank after which the payment of $34 million on an annual basis through mobile companies to international service providers, including Google, Amazon and Meta, got stuck up.

Pakistani customers will now be forced to download Google and other international apps for making payments through credit cards or debit cards only. But the credit card facility is limited to a certain number of customers, so the majority of mobile users may be deprived of downloading apps from Google Play Store.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and four cellular mobile operators (CMOs) unanimously wrote a joint letter to the SBP on Friday, making a request to reverse its decision of revoking the DCB mechanism for payment of dollar fee keeping in view the liquidity crunch being faced by the country.

Top official sources confirmed to The News that Google services such as downloading apps will be unavailable. They conveyed to relevant authorities that the outstanding payment of $34 million was due, so their services for downloading of Google App Store will no more be available if the outstanding amount was not cleared.

The four mobile operators sent a joint letter to the government, stating that the telecom industry is one of the biggest contributors to foreign direct investment along with other significant contributions in the form of tax, duties and other levies.

The role of the telecom sector in expanding the agenda of Digital Pakistan cannot be ignored. Pakistan’s digital transformation is intended to benefit all social and economic sectors and thus needs engagement and facilitation from all stakeholders.

The State Bank of Pakistan revoked the IT designation of telecom operators months back. It was further advised to route cases to SBP on a case-to-case basis for subsequent approval. Consequently, the mobile operators stated that they were facing severe delays in getting approvals, resulting in disruption of critical services as they support the company in managing IT and digital infrastructure to meet all operational requirements internally and servicing its customers billing management, fraud management software, Office 365, robotics automation software and software developers as well as payments related to digital advertising on big IT platforms.

The digital economy in Pakistan has a heavy reliance on international service providers for hosting on cloud platforms, licenses required for services/platforms, security features and in many cases technical expertise to upskill the local workforce to meet international standards.

All the major players like Google, Amazon and Meta, are being impacted because of non-payment and are most likely to discontinue their services the impact of which will be reflected in terms of telecom and internet users being unable to fulfil their needs from digital platforms including digital banking, e-Commerce, e-Education, e-Health that uses cloud infrastructure and gets licenses for both applications as well as web-based platforms that are being badly impacted.

Distribution and monetisation of digital platforms will become extremely challenging considering the lack of distribution support and interest from the market leaders like Google, Amazon, and Apple representing Facebook. Digital marketing is the most effective channel for all brands, products and services will shrink drastically or become unavailable, thus, impacting brands, services and products beyond the digital space.

“Any potential outage of such digital services due to non-payments would create a lot of negativity in the world about Pakistan in this age of social media and should be avoided at any cost,” stated the letter.

The letter concluded: “It is pertinent to mention here that we all understand the prevailing challenge of worsening economic conditions of the country and thus are open to working in an amicable way with the Regulator (SBP); as we are already working with them in case of the telecom sector imports related transactions to navigate through these testing times.”

Google Play Store services to be unavailable in Pakistan from Dec 1

The State Bank of Pakistan suspended the payment of $34 million to international service providers

www.geo.tv

 

[epebble]

SBP is really scraping the bottom if they have to do this for $34 million.

 

[ARMalik]

SBP is really scraping the bottom if they have to do this for $34 million.

They should have just gone to Fat bajwa - he probably has $34 Million sitting in his left shoe alone.

 

[NooriNuth]

Juey Bhutto Nawaz Sharif
Bhutwari

 

[Hack-Hook]

not biggie , I learned to not use any google service at all in last 2 year after buying a Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G and believe me its possible, while a little challenging at first, now a days I don't even feel the difference with others , as a matter of fact after 6 month to 1 year I could use my phones in ways my family that used Google Services didn't knew its even possible.

 

[Jango]

I am not an accountant, but this is my understanding of the whole issue. Some technical details might be skipped over, but the gist is correct.

State Bank created a facility for the telcos so that they can approve an account with a bank of their choice to to rapid money transfers abroad, in order to buy equipment for THEMSELVES. This includes BTS, servers, storage devices and mediums, and other technical equipment from abroad.

The telcos, apart from using this facility for the intended purpose, were also sending money back to Google and Apple (not sure) through it. So the telcos took money from the customer, held it for some time, and then remitted it back to the service provider.

In such a scenario, the telcos were functioning as an intermediary or a bank (I have forgotten the exact term for this). And according to SBP rules, you have to submit another application and get a separate approval from the one mentioned above, and then you can do this.

So this seems more like a technical detail or a loophole the telcos found rather than a move by SBP to control outflow of USD.

This is not to say that the USD situation is precarious. Banks have sent out messages to their customers that they can only make transactions worth USD 30k per annum with their credit/debit cards. Moreover, from Dec 15 I believe you cannot send wire transfers abroad greater than USD 20k I believe (not sure on the exact amount but it's somewhere here).

 

[BHAN85]

Google play store services has never be available in China and that's the correct behaviour of a sovereign country.

A country who let a foreign company to decide what the people can install or not in their own phones, it's a country slowly digging its own hole.

Every sovereign country should have its own play store in the smartphones sold in the country, like China does.

 

[epebble]

Google play store services has never be available in China and that's the correct behaviour of a sovereign country.

A country who let a foreign company to decide what the people can install or not in their own phones, it's a country slowly digging its own hole.

Every sovereign country should have its own play store in the smartphones sold in the country, like China does.

And how do you enforce that? You know people can use VPN, right? It is not a question of installing Apps, it is paying for Apps. On that, Pakistan can exert control by not releasing Foreign exchange. In fact, that is commendable in a crisis like now when the scare resources should only be used for food, fuel and medicine (and anything that will bring in more foreign exchange than being spent).

 

[Turingsage]

In fact, that is commendable in a crisis like now when the scare resources

So Pakistani's and its govt think its commendable to get a vendor to sell you something and then not pay them. Its called theft plain and simple in every other country.
But then why should Pakistan behave any different then its people.

 

[epebble]

So Pakistani's and its govt think its commendable to get a vendor to sell you something and then not pay them. Its called theft plain and simple in every other country.
But then why should Pakistan behave any different then its people.

That is not how it works. Exchange control is an ancient monetary policy. SBP makes a public announcement stating the positive and negative exchange control lists. Those on positive list are deemed OK to import. Typically, food, fuel, medicines. Everything else is on negative control list. That means, if a foreign entity (Google) sells an app, they will be paid in Rupees. They do not get to repatriate in any other currency. this is how developing countries manage their foreign exchange. Anything out of the ordinary needs an import license i.e., an explicit promise by the Central bank that an import can be paid with a repatriable currency. Google can use the Rupees for example to hire local programmers to develop Apps. So, it compels the foreign entity to spend the money it earns locally and not send it abroad.

 

[BHAN85]

And how do you enforce that? You know people can use VPN, right? It is not a question of installing Apps, it is paying for Apps. On that, Pakistan can exert control by not releasing Foreign exchange. In fact, that is commendable in a crisis like now when the scare resources should only be used for food, fuel and medicine (and anything that will bring in more foreign exchange than being spent).

China does right.

You can use VPN in China, but little amount of people does that.

If they dont want to loss social credits .

Technology have caught unaware old ruling elites of whole world.

Things allowed in electronic internet devices would never be allowed in real world.

You buy a 1000$ electronic device and the owner of the device who say what you can install is a foreign company, it's ridiculous, not a country in this world should allow that abuse.

Remember Parler and PlayStore banning.