FBR policies retarding IT exports, discouraging freelancers: minister

ISLAMABAD: IT minister Syed Amin-Ul-Haque on Monday said Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) policies and some rules of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) were hindering growth of IT exports and export remittances through freelancers.

“It is feared that local talent may be working here, but by operating its own company from another country,” Haque said while presiding over a meeting of Policy Committee and Research and Development Fund of ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MOITT).

“There is no reason why we can get billions of dollars’ worth of foreign exchange from the IT Sector. It is necessary to relax strict conditions, including tax enforcement, and give maximum relaxation to the IT industry and freelancers, otherwise, the industry will shut down soon,” he added.

Haque termed FBR policies impediment to increase in number of IT exports, freelancers, and export remittances, due to which, software companies and freelancers were thinking of shifting their business to other countries, he shared. “It is feared that if IT companies and freelancers were not given facilities, including tax incentives, the industry will shut down soon,” the minister observed.

Meanwhile, the meeting approved in principle a budget of Rs32.13 billion for Universal Service Fund (USF), subsidiary of ministry of IT, for financial year 2022/23 and Rs3.75 billion for National Technology Fund (Ignite).

Harris Mahmood Chaudhary, chief executive officer at USF, and Asim Shahryar, chief Executive officer at Ignite briefed the meeting on performance of their respective organisations and details regarding the amount allocated in the budget.

IT minister was of the view that USF had done record work for providing boardband services in last 4 years. He said USF projects were limited to 59 in 13 years from 2006 and 2019, while pushed by directives to speedup number of projects and performance, 65 broadband service and Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) projects were launched from 2019 to date, he added.

Haque said as a result of telecom policies and provision of broadband services to un-served and under-served areas, the number of telecom subscribers had reached a record level of 193 million by May 30, 2022.

Similarly, the number of 3G and 4G subscribers in the country had crossed 114 million while the number of subscribers using broadband services reached 117 million, he stated. Secretary IT Mohsin Mushtaq, additional secretary Finance, member telecom and other officials also attended the meeting.