No plan to cut passport fees, interior ministry tells Senate

The interior ministry has told the Senate that no proposal to reduce passport fees is currently under consideration, and set out five years of fee collections totalling Rs219.931 billion.

The ministry's written reply to the upper house, filed in response to a question from Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood, gave the figures year by year, according to ARY News. The government collected Rs21.618 billion in passport fees in the 2021-22 fiscal year and Rs34.495 billion in 2022-23.

Receipts then stood at Rs50.906 billion in 2023-24 and Rs64.392 billion in 2024-25, before the ministry reported Rs48.52 billion for 2025-26.

The reply also addressed why fees have not come down. The ministry said the production and procurement costs of e-passports are higher than those of conventional passports. It said Pakistan is gradually moving from machine-readable passports to the e-passport system, which is being introduced in line with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The Senate answer follows a change in how applicants pay. The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports (DGIP) has made it mandatory for passport fees to be paid only through a designated Raast QR code.

In a public notice, the directorate said payments would be accepted only after scanning that QR code. It said transfers made through Interbank Fund Transfer using an International Bank Account Number, and payments made through a Payment Slip Identification number via Passport Fee Asaan, would not be accepted.

"Passport fee payments will be accepted exclusively through scanning the Raast QR code," the DGIP said, urging applicants to use only the designated method.

Taken together, the two disclosures sketch a passport system being tightened on both cost and payment sides: the ministry rules out a fee cut on the grounds of higher e-passport costs, while the department that issues the documents has narrowed the channels through which the money can reach it.

The ministry did not indicate in its reply when the shift to e-passports would be complete, or whether the cost difference would be reflected in any future revision of the fee schedule. The Senate reply gave collection totals only, and did not break down how many passports were issued in each year or what share of the receipts came from e-passports as opposed to machine-readable ones.

Senator Mahmood's question was among the written queries answered by the ministry during the current Senate session.