Pakistan’s ICT exports reach $1.94 billion in financial year 2021-22

By the end of the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2021-22, information and communications technology (ICT) exports had surpassed $2 billion.

According to the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the industry maintained a solid growth of inflows, which totaled $1.94 billion from July to March in the current financial year 2021-22, representing a 29.2 percent year-on-year gain.

In comparison to FY21, net ICT exports increased in the current fiscal year. Last year, net exports were $1.12 billion, accounting for 74.72 percent of the $1.50 billion in export proceeds.

However, given current political uncertainties, it is less probable that the country will meet its Rs3.5 billion objective from IT export remittances.

Following the release of the numbers, Syed Aminul Haq, the federal minister for information technology and telecommunications, instructed the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) to go above and beyond to meet the IT export target.

Because the country recently had a government transition, IT exporters are hopeful that policies will be maintained under the same minister, who has been involved in a variety of IT projects and has a thorough awareness of the difficulties.

However, the government must act quickly to boost the sector’s exports in the coming months, particularly the provision of refunds to IT exporters and the removal of withholding tax on IT companies.