ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced a tax holiday for tech-start-up companies and software houses for a period of three years.
Proposed budget for 2017-18 said that all IT exports – from with-in Islamabad – will also be exempted from sales tax. Software houses and startups in provinces will be dealt through local government and incentives are likely to be announced in the provincial budgets.
Government said that IT export houses and tech companies will be allowed to open Foreign Exchange Accounts in Pakistan on the condition that deposit in these accounts shall only be allowed through remittances from abroad in respect of their export earnings.
Minister for Finance, Ishaq Dar, during his budget speech, said that startups IT export companies will be further allowed to use foreign exchange accounts for meeting business related payments outside Pakistan.
Government also announced to up a IT software park in Islamabad with the help of Korean Government at a cost of Rs6.0 billion. The financial arrangements for this have been concluded and the construction work shall start soon, said the finance minister.
