The government of Pakistan has decided to exempt IT exports from taxes till June 2019. Both the IT products and services will be exempted from tax. The government is giving out this package in a bid to promote and boost IT industry of the country, which is going satisfactorily up until now. In the 2017-18 budget speech, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that government will give tax breaks to IT sector of the country.
Moreover, the government also announced in budget 2017-18 that the technology companies and startups will also be exempted from sales tax for the first three years of their establishment. Gilgit and FATA IT exports will be exempted from sales tax as well.
Furthermore, the government has reduced excise duty on telecommunication service to 17 percent which previously was 18.5 percent.
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Not only Pakistan but many other countries such as France are also trying to boost their IT sector, by making new laws and giving out incentives to the IT industry. Recently the President of France Emmanuel Macron while talking at the Viva-Tech conference in Paris introduced the new government’s policy to make France a digital hub.
Middle Eastern country Dubai is also pursuing a dream of becoming a digitally advanced country on the face of the earth. The Government of Dubai has initiated many projects in the process of becoming an IT advanced country such as paperless passports for its citizens and introducing a Robocop to patrol its streets.
