April 27, 2025 (MLN): The country is poised to achieve $4 billion in IT exports for FY25, as information technology has emerged as the fastest-growing export industry of Pakistan, according to Muhammad Umair Nizam, Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).
Whereas, it was $3.2bn in FY24, and we are optimistic for a 25% year-on-year (YoY) growth, he added.
It is pertinent to note that P@SHA organized a high-profile interactive CXO session of the country’s top IT companies in Karachi to discuss and consult on trends in Pakistan’s IT exports, its challenges, infrastructural growth, governmental relations, international collaborations, and investments.
CEOs and other senior executives of the exporting companies participated in the strategic discussions in large numbers, as per the press release.
Notably, Mr. Raheel Iqbal, Vice Chairman P@SHA; Mr. Haris Naseer, Treasurer P@SHA; Mr. Munaf Majeed, Mr. Usman Akbar, Mr. Hassan Bin Rizwan, Central Executive Committee (CEC) Members of P@SHA, attended the session.
Umair Nizam informed that the IT industry, as a whole, expressed their satisfaction with the initiatives of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO); Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom (MoITT); Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB).
Nonetheless, they demanded that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) expedite their policymaking, regulatory easing, and implementation.
This is necessary to create an enabling, facilitative, and incentivizing environment that matches the rate of expansion in the IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) industry.
Nizam explained that the country is fast expanding in new sub-sectors and verticals in various tech spheres, and conventional regulations create bottlenecks due to their inability to adapt, he added.
Nonetheless, the IT industry demanded a pro-investment and pro-business Federal Budget 2025-26, which is expected to be announced in the first week of June 2025.
For this, P@SHA has submitted its detailed and data-driven budgetary proposals to the concerned ministries and institutions, Umair Nizam added.
Primarily, P@SHA is looking forward to a 10-year tax holiday to encourage new foreign and domestic investments, streamlining of foreign exchange regulations, facilitation from commercial banks, and the removal of sales tax anomalies.
Additionally, P@SHA is advocating for the allocation of funds for skills development and the acceleration of the operational materialization of Special Technology Zones (STZs) and IT parks.
Umair Nizam highlighted that one of the critical demands of the IT companies is the parity and economic sense in the income tax applied to their salaried employees and freelancers working in the country.
Salaried employees have to pay up to 35% taxes, and freelancers pay only 0.25 – 1%.
This is a glaring anomaly; discourages salaried employees and needs to be fixed in the budget, he added.
Muhammad Zohaib Khan, immediate past Chairman P@SHA, elaborated that IT is the only industry in Pakistan with an industry trade surplus in the vicinity of 75%.
He further emphasized that it is the only industry capable of growing at an exponential rate, developing a skilled workforce, creating employment rapidly, and helping curtail the trade deficit while maintaining healthy current and external accounts on a sustainable basis.
Copyright Mettis Link News
Posted on: 2025-04-27T18:41:17+05:00
