ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haque said on Monday that the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) policies and some rules of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have been hindering the growth of IT exports. He demanded relaxation in these conditions, including tax enforcement.

The minister while presiding over a meeting of the Policy Committee and Research and Development Fund said that the FBR policies impeded achieving an increase in IT exports and freelancers and export remittances, due to which software companies and freelancers were thinking of shifting their business to other countries.

He said: “It is necessary to relax strict conditions, including tax enforcement, and give maximum relaxation to IT industry and freelancers, otherwise, it is feared that if IT companies and freelancers are not given facilities, including tax incentives, the industry will shut down soon.”

Mr Haque further said that the country may be getting all the foreign exchange and credit for IT export.

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

USF Chief Executive Officer Harris Mahmood Chaudhry and Ignite Chief Executive Officer Asim Shahryar briefed the meeting on the performance of their respective organisations and details regarding the amount allocated in the budget.

Published in Dawn,June 21st, 2022