A 0.25 percent tax has been imposed on computer software or IT services exported by the government through Finance Bill, 2022.
The bill provides that the export proceeds of computer science software or IT services or IT-enabled services by persons registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board in fiscal year 2022-23 will be taxed at a flat rate of 0.25 percent.
However, any other exports that are related to IT, will be taxed at a fixed rate of 1%.
Although the government is trying to increase revenues through the implementation of additional taxes in various sectors, the new tax could make things difficult for freelancers and individuals and eventually impact the growth of the IT sector.
A recent Economic Survey released on Thursday indicated that IT and IT services exports in July-March 2021-22 soared to $1.948 billion, representing a 29.26 percent increase over the previous year’s $1.5 billion.