Aitizaz Hassan

The information technology and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances, including computer services and call center services, declined by 0.3% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2022-23.

IT exports were $633 million from July to September in 2022 compared to $635 million in the same period of last fiscal year.

Talking to WealthPK, Badar Khushnood, well known IT expert and co-founder of Fishry e-commerce consultancy firm - said the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MOITT) is seriously involved in boosting the IT industry, while the Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), is not showing interest to approve the MOITT recommendations.

Badar Khushnood stated that tax amnesty policy for freelancers has not been implemented yet. He said the IT industry isn’t demanding infrastructure and road to build, it just works with making supportive policies. Continuity in the policy and implementation despite shifting of powers is entailed for IT industry.

The IT expert said e-commerce and IT is the second biggest industry in Pakistan, and IT returns back to the exchequer in a very quick and instant way. “Agriculture and textile industries have very gradual process of earning revenue, while the IT practice is based on easy money concept,” Badar added.

Badar said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, big clients of global IT market came to Pakistan as other big IT markets were choked. During the last couple of years, the IT surge was unexpected due to unusual demand during Covid-19. He said the Pakistani IT companies are still doing huge business and demand is still very high in the digital market.

“The issue is that they are just parking their dollars outside Pakistan due to unconducive environment of business in the country. Pakistan is just missing this huge opportunity due to unfavorable policies,” he pointed out.

Badar Khushnood said that the Indonesian government announced in 2021 that digital nomads with foreign-sourced income would be granted five-year digital nomad visas without taxation. An announcement of an Indonesia digital nomad visa is intended to attract over 3.6 million overseas travelers to explore the country’s business. Pakistan freelancers are going to explore other countries in huge numbers due to attractive incentives and policies.

According to recent data of the SBP, the IT and ITeS export remittances declined by around 10% on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in September 2022, and remained at $206 million compared to $228 million in August 2022.

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the sector’s export remittances decreased by around 5% compared to $215 million in September 2021. The ICT export remittances, including telecommunication, computer, and information services, reached an all-time high of $2.616 billion, a growth rate of 24.09% in the fiscal year 2021-22, compared to $2.108 billion in the fiscal year 2020-21.

The MOITT has set the target of IT exports at $5 billion by June 2023. In a recent statement, the federal minister for IT and telecom said that the government is taking all possible steps to ensure a long-term IT industry growth trajectory and enhance IT industry exports to $5 billion by 2023.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk