ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Secretary of the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui along with his team Monday called upon Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Asim Ahmad in FBR Headquarters.
Member (IT) Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT), Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board, Chairman PASHA and Chairman IT Sub-task force were present with the Secretary IT Shoaib Ahmed.
MOIT leadership presented a detailed Industry Impact Analysis in result of recent announcements by FBR to abolish the tax exemption regime and replacing it with recently announced tax credit regime.
Secretary IT highlighted this government’s remarkable achievement in the form of IT/ITES export figures as Pakistan expects to reach landmark of USD 2 billion export remittances this year. He emphasized that IT sector is on high priority agenda of 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 Ministry of IT and IT Industry on board.
It was shared that all the hard work will be reversed as policy inconsistency never sends a good signal to the domestic and international investors. Forum was apprised that immediate reaction of IT/ITES and freelance sector, to this policy change, can be in form of flight of capital and brain drain in the country.
It was emphasized that IT/ITES and Freelance sectors are only surplus services sector with a highly positive impact on job market and economic growth in the country.
Chairman FBR assured that concerns of IT/ITES sector will be addressed. FBR and MOIT agreed to conduct joint workshops for IT/ITES and freelance sector to facilitate the industry in tax matters.