Sindh Govt Reduces Sales Tax from 13% to 3% for Software Businesses

The Sindh government plans to provide tax relief to the IT industry by lowering the Sindh Sales Tax on IT, software businesses, and call centers from 13% to 3%, as well as unveiling a five-year IT policy.

Sindh Govt Reduces Sales Tax from 13% to 3% for Software Businesses

Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah made the announcement on Monday while speaking at a session titled Ease of Doing Business for the IT/ITeS Industry. At the seminar, which was hosted by Sindh Information Science and Technology Department in partnership with Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and PASHA, the Federal Minister for Information Technology also addressed.

The CM claimed that relief for the IT industry would be announced in Tuesday’s budget address, with the rate of Sindh Sales Tax on IT, software businesses, and contact centers being slashed from 13% to 3% without input tax credit. Large establishments, on the other hand, who prefer the regular rate with input tax credit will have the option of paying 13 percent with input tax credit.

Murad stated that his government was committed to assisting the IT sector by offering fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, as well as projects aimed at increasing IT exports from Sindh via policy interventions and procurement rules that encourage the use of local IT solutions.

With the help of PSEB, he added, the Sindh government planned to roll out enabling IT infrastructure across the province, and it was also in the process of establishing Sindh’s first “cloud first policy,” which would be presented in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022-23.

According to him, the strategy will support coordination with the federal government for universal broadband, the development of Software and IT Parks, and the incentivizing of cloud services for government adoption to give cost-effective services to start-ups and IT enterprises.

Syed Amin ul Haq, the Federal Minister for Information Technology, announced that the IT ministry’s Universal Service Fund had approved eight new internet services and fiber optic cable projects for over Rs. 10 billion to provide digital services to over 3.3 million people in all four provinces.

The initiative encompassed 31 villages in seven districts of Sindh where facilities were not accessible or cellular phone or internet signals were inadequate. He stated that work on the projects would begin on July 1 and would be completed in 16 months.

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