The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), on Monday, directed commercial banks and authorised dealers to facilitate the Information Technology (IT) industry in swiftly opening foreign currency accounts and to ensure the timely credit of remittances in local currency accounts.
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), and Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) have been working with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to ease the foreign currency retention and utilisation issues faced by the IT industry.
The development came after SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed met with representatives from PSEB, MoITT and P@SHA on Monday to review the industry’s issues and concerns.
On January 13, the SBP had issued EPD circular letters titled “Exports of Software, Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITeS)” and “Utilisation of Funds held in Exporters’ Special Foreign Currency Account”, however, due to misinterpretation by commercial banks, the exporters were facing difficulties in converting the foreign currency remittances into PKR.
This issue was highlighted to the finance minister and SBP governor, and as a result, the central bank issued directions to the authorised dealers on January 27, 2023, to facilitate the IT and ITeS exporters in swiftly opening foreign currency accounts to retain up to 35% of export proceeds.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2023.
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