Pakistan’s spends over $ 386 million on import of IT services

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has spent US $ 386.951 million by acquiring different information technology (IT) services from various countries during the fiscal year 2019-20.

This shows decrease of 12.26 percent when compared to US $ 441.040 million spent through provision of services during the corresponding period of last fiscal year 2018-19, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

During the period under review, the imports of computer services witnessed nominal increase of 1.38 percent as it surged from US $ 319.880 million last year to US $ 324.280 million during July-June (2019-20).

Among the computer services, the imports of software consultancy services decreased by 3.14 percent, from US $ 108.707 million to US $ 105.298 million while the import of hardware consultancy services also declined by 92.50 percent, from US $ 0.200 million to US $ 0.015 million.

The imports of repair and maintenance services also decline by 49.46 percent from US $ 1.397 million to US $0.706 million whereas the export and imports of computer software services witnessed decrease of 9.52 percent, from $ 180.873 million to $ 163.646 million.

In addition the imports of other computer services rose by 90.28 percent from US$ 28.703 million to US $ 54.615 million.

Meanwhile, the information services during the fiscal year under review decreased by 38.57 percent by going down from US $ 17.990 million to US $ 11.051 million.

Among the information services, the import of news agency services also decreased by 38.60 percent, from US $ 17.527 million to US $ 10.761 million whereas the imports of other information services dipped by 37.37 percent, from US $ 0.463 million to US $ 0.290 million.

The telecommunication services decreased by 49.97 percent as these went down from US $103.170 million to 51.620 million, the data revealed.

Among the telecommunication services, the call centres services decreased by 45.35 percent during the period as its imports dipped from US $ 1.334 million to US $ 0.729 million whereas the import of other telecommunication services also decreased by 50.03 percent, from US $ 101.836 million to US $50.891 million during the fiscal year under review, the PBS data revealed.