Raza Khan

Pakistani freelancers have called upon the government to provide more incentives on par with the IT industry to boost the country’s services exports. According to Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan’s former minister for finance and revenue, at least $4 billion earned by freelancers and IT exporters are parked abroad. “Freelancers are reluctant to bring that money back to Pakistan due to the complex taxation and banking system,” Tareen said.

He suggested that freelancers should be facilitated with zero tax on bringing their money back to the country. “It will increase Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves,” Tareen added.Muhammad Imran, an expert in IT and digital marketing, told WealthPK that zero tax for freelancers would boost IT industry.“This will be a major source to add up a huge amount in foreign reserves of the country,” he added.

He said that the freelance industry is the only sector which works effortlessly, conveniently and with low resources. He said a freelancer just needs a laptop and successional internet provision, which is not so much costly. He maintained that a thriving freelance industry will reduce the competition and saturation in the IT industry.

According to Tufail Ahmed Khan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pakistan Freelancers Association, Pakistani freelancing industry secured third position in 2020 in the world freelancing market. He suggested the govt incentivise and facilitate freelancers because the global freelancing market is opening up in the post Covid-19 era.“The freelancing export remittances of Pakistan are low, which should be doubled according to industry potential and increasing trends of freelancing in different services,” Tufail added.

He said the emerging markets for Pakistani freelancers are the United States and Europe where they can make million-dollar codes while being in their homes. “Freelancers just seek an initial enabling from the governments, whereas the rest of the work is done by themselves,” he said. According to the official data of the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (MoITT), the remittance inflows during the current financial year stood at $397.328 million compared to $396.243 million recorded during the previous financial year.

The contribution of freelancers accounted for 14.77% of the total information and communication technologies (ICT) export remittances of $2.616 billion recorded by the country during last fiscal year. “The contribution of freelancers to attracting export remittances has been impressive considering the issues and challenges faced by the fraternity,” Tufail said.

“In order to encourage freelance work, the youth should be instructed and given proper guidance through vocational training and other technical courses,” he added. “Currently, freelancers are not included in the standard definition of Information Technology and IT Enabled Services (ITeS) industry so they cannot avail the services and incentives,” said a report of Pakistan Software House Association (P@SHA).

The report suggested that the registered freelancers should be allowed to retain the foreign exchange up to value of $100,000 so that they did not lose the value of their earnings due to the volatility of Pakistan’s currency exchange rates. It added that this incentive would encourage freelancers to bring the foreign exchange to Pakistan that was currently parked offshore. “The encouragement of freelancers will help Pakistan boost its economy,” the report said. Foreign currency account retention is not allowed for freelancers. “Also, every year freelancers contribute considerable revenue to the economy but it goes unreported,” the report added.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk