IT Ministry concern over FBR decision to abolish Tax Exemption regime

The Ministry of IT and Telecom alongside business bodies have expressed concern over the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) decision to abolish the Tax Exemption regime.

On the direction of Federal Minister for IT and Telecom and recommendations of Prime Minister’s Taskforce on IT & Telecom, Secretary IT Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui along with Member (IT) MOIT, Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board, Chairman PASHA, and Chair IT Sub-taskforce called upon Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad and his team in FBR Headquarters.

MOIT presented a detailed Industry Impact Analysis as the result of recent announcements by FBR to abolish the Tax Exemption regime and replacing it with the recently announced Tax Credit Regime.

Secretary IT highlighted Pakistan expects to reach USD 2 billion in the form of IT/ITES export remittances this year. He emphasized that IT Sector is on the high priority agenda of the Prime Minister and MOIT is leading this agenda to implement it with all available resources to ensure facilitation to IT/ITES and Freelance sectors in the country.

Barkan Saeed Chairman PASHA and Syed Ahmed Chair IT Sub-taskforce raised serious concerns on FBR’s unanimous decision of taking IT/ITES Sector into tax credit regime, without taking the Ministry of IT and IT Industry on board.

The IT industry expresses concern that all the hard work will be reversed as policy inconsistency never sends a good signal to the domestic and international investors.

The forum was apprised that immediate reaction of IT/ITES and Freelance sector, to this policy change, can be in form of a flight of capital and brain drain in the country.

The complexities around extra documentation IT/ITES Sector and Freelancers have to face due to tax credit regime were also highlighted which can result in increased cost of doing business, especially for new entrants.

Chairman FBR assured that concerns of the IT/ITES Sector will be addressed.