The Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (Pakistan) continues its efforts to enhance IT exports and build up the IT & IT-enabled Services (ITeS) due to which export remittances comprising of computer services and call center services have surged to $1.11 billion at a growth rate of 20.75% over the first 11 months of FY 2019-20 (July – May), in comparison to $917.875 million during the same period in FY 2018-19. This is according to performance report of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), an organization under Ministry of IT and Telecommunication.
Incentives from the government, and various projects to enhance the capacity of the IT Industry have resulted in strong industry growth rates. Incentives to the industry include zero income tax on IT & ITeS exports till June 2025, tax breaks for PSEB registered IT start-ups for 3 years, up to 100% foreign ownership of IT & ITeS companies, up to 100% repatriation of profits for foreign IT & ITeS investors, tax holiday for venture capital funds till 2024, among other enhancers.
Secretary IT Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui stated that PSEB has highly trained and experienced assets in the form of commercial counselors in important cities around the world and that they can contribute significantly to projecting Pakistan’s IT & ITeS sector around the globe and this needs to remain a continuous process to ensure Pakistan’s share increases in the global technology domains.
