State Bank increases retention limit of IT exporters

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday introduced new measures to facilitate Information Technology exporters and freelancers for bolstering exports of IT and IT-enabled services.

SBP has increased the permissible retention limit of IT exporters from 35% to 50% of their export proceeds in the Exporters’ Specialized Foreign Currency Accounts (ESFCAs).

Meanwhile, the usage of the balances available in the ESFCAs has been simplified by allowing the IT exporters to make their payments from these accounts without any approval from SBP or banks.

The banks have also been advised to facilitate the issuance of debit cards, enabling the IT exporters to make online payments from the balances available in their ESFCAs, said a statement issued here.

A new Framework for Freelancers has been introduced to further ease the opening of their bank accounts and allow higher retention of amounts in their foreign currency (FCY) accounts, it stated adding that the freelancers would now be able to open the bank accounts both digitally and physically at their choice with minimum documentation requirements.

Their ESFCAs shall be opened concurrently with the opening of their primary PKR account, the SBP further added.

Under the newly introduced measures, the freelancers could retain 50% of their export proceeds or USD 5,000 per month- whichever is higher- in their ESFCAs and could make all payments from those accounts without any approval from SBP or banks.