The State Bank of Pakistan has announced a sweeping set of regulatory reforms designed to cut red tape for the country’s growing community of information technology exporters and freelancers, with the most consequential change being a hard cap of one working day on the processing of inward export receipts and outward remittances. The central bank has rolled out a comprehensive package of measures aimed at simplifying processes for information technology exporters and freelancers to accelerate Pakistan’s digital services growth. Issued on April 6, 2026, the reforms address long-standing frustrations around documentation burdens, banking delays, and inconsistent procedures that have historically pushed many freelancers toward informal payment channels rather than the formal banking system.
Information technology companies and freelancers will no longer be required to submit Form R for every individual export transaction. Instead, they will provide a one-time declaration, clearly specifying the nature of services being offered overseas, at the time of opening a new account, with existing customers required to comply as and when necessary. Authorised dealers, meaning banks, will tag the relevant service and purpose code with the exporter’s account for reporting and processing export transactions, unless advised otherwise by the exporter. In practical terms, this means a freelancer closing multiple contracts in a single month no longer needs to file a separate regulatory form for each incoming payment. A single declaration at account opening, stating the categories of services provided internationally, is sufficient for all subsequent transactions to be processed automatically. The threshold for Form R and the Inward Remittance Voucher has also been revised upward to 25,000 United States dollars or the equivalent in other currencies, whereas the reporting threshold was previously set at above 10,000 United States dollars, meaning smaller and mid-sized transactions are now entirely free of the compliance burden that formerly accompanied them.
A maximum turnaround time of one working day has been introduced for processing inward export receipts and outward remittances from Exporters’ Special Foreign Currency Accounts. Documentation requirements for outward remittances from these accounts for acquiring services from abroad have also been standardised to promote clarity and consistency across banks. Banks have additionally been instructed to establish effective internal systems to ensure timely resolution of complaints raised by information technology companies and freelancers, enhancing service quality and responsiveness. This standardisation is particularly significant for freelancers who regularly pay for international software subscriptions, cloud infrastructure, and overseas contractor services, as they have previously had to navigate varying and often contradictory document requirements depending on their bank.
Under the revised rules, information technology firms and freelancers can retain 5,000 United States dollars per month or 50 percent of their export proceeds, whichever is higher, in Exporters’ Special Foreign Currency Accounts. Funds in these accounts can be used for imports, advance payments, foreign consultancy, software subscriptions, and overseas vendor payments, but cannot be transferred to other foreign currency accounts. The State Bank has also updated reporting formats for banks, requiring authorised dealers to capture detailed transaction purposes for remittances above 25,000 United States dollars, using digitalised Forms R and M with auto-populated customer data. Pakistan’s information technology export receipts fell to 365 million United States dollars in February 2026, down from 374 million dollars in January, making the sector’s need for streamlined regulatory support a pressing economic concern. The central bank has expressed confidence that these measures will meaningfully enhance operational efficiency and contribute to reversing that declining trend by making the formal banking channel more competitive and accessible for the country’s freelance and information technology exporting community.
Official links to the revised instructions: 🔗 Circular 1 | 🔗 Circular 2
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