Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances increased by around 7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $ 214 million when compared to $199 million in July 2022.

On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the sector’s export remittances decreased by 5 percent during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year and stood at $214 million when compared to $224 million in June 2023, according to the official data released by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has downward revised the sector exports remittances to $2.593 billion for fiscal year 2022-23 against the initial estimates of $2.605 billion.

ITeS export remittances missed the target of $3 billion set for the fiscal year 2022-23 by around 14 percent, attributable to the non-implementation of agreed incentives, lack of consistency in policies, as well as, non-resolving the tax and banks-related issues.

Official data revealed that the sector’s exports remittances declined by around one percent during the fiscal year 2022-23 and stood at $2.593 billion compared to $2.619 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22.

The IT and the ITeS export remittances, including telecommunication, computer, and information services, reached an all-time high of $2.619 billion, a growth rate of 47.43 percent in the fiscal year 2022 compared to $2.108 billion in the fiscal year 2021.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had envisaged that the IT exports target of $5 billion would be achieved by June 2023. However, it had also warned the government that on account of the non-implementation of agreed incentives, lack of consistency in policies, as well as, without resolving the tax and banks-related issues, the telecom sector exports remittances may suffer besides compromising its digital vision.

Source: ProPakistani