Islamabad, 26 December 2023 (GNP): Umar Saif, the Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, announced a major policy initiative on Monday in collaboration with the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the State Bank of Pakistan.
In a significant policy intervention, last month, IT companies in Pakistan were permitted to retain 50% of their export revenue in dollars in a Pakistani bank and execute their international payments without any restrictions.
In a video message, the minister stated, ‘We collaborated with the SIFC and the State Bank to implement a significant policy intervention last month, allowing IT companies to retain 50 percent of their export revenue in dollars in an account in Pakistan and conduct their international expenses without constraints from this amount.’
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IT industry has great export potential but is compelled to keep its dollars abroad. IT companies have to pay salaries of their international employees placed with foreign clients, and incur monthly expenses for cloud hosting, marketing and sales on platforms like Google, Amazon,… pic.twitter.com/YCqXMxtTl9
— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) December 23, 2023
He further added, ‘The timely decisions made by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) are yielding remarkable results, paving the way to bolster Pakistan’s IT exports to $10 billion.’
Moreover, Minister Umar Saif highlighted that as a result of this policy change, IT companies have begun repatriating dollars. Additionally, export revenue has surged by 14% in just a month, marking a 20% increase compared to last year’s exports.
Expressing optimism, the minister projected that at this rate, Pakistan’s IT exports are expected to surpass $3 billion in the coming months, with a goal to elevate them to $10 billion.
