ISLAMABAD: Caretaker IT Minister Dr Umar Saif said that the government is planning to put in place a mechanism for retaining dollars as many IT companies are parking dollars outside the country.

       Talking to the media on Tuesday at the ministry, Mr Saif said that remittances from IT exports were around $2.6 billion but the size of IT services exports was over $4bn.

       “This is because several IT companies park money outside the country,” Dr Saif said.

       The minister said that talks were underway with PayPal to facilitate the inflow of dollars in Pakistan.

       He added that the regulatory framework in the country was the major obstacle regarding the entry of PayPal in Pakistan.

       He added that in the next few days, the government will reach a mechanism to encourage IT companies to bring their foreign exchange earnings into the country.

       The IT minister said that there was a huge potential in exports of IT-enabled services and the government was planning to launch an interest-free loan scheme to facilitate IT freelancers.

       He further said funds for startups will be set up with the support of international companies while the government will allocate Rs3bn in this fund.

       Responding to the question, he said that no proper auction of spectrum was held in 10 years.

       The caretaker minister announced that a telecom tribunal would be established soon. This would help resolve the court cases involving the stakeholders of IT & telecom sector.

       He also announced that an infrastructure-sharing policy will be presented in the next cabinet meeting. He added that National Roaming Infrastructure has been launched and roaming would be functional on national highways in two months.

       Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2023