KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday introduced reforms to facilitate IT exporters and freelancers, aiming to simplify export realisation procedures, standardise documentation requirements, set a timeline for transaction processing and strengthen complaint resolution mechanisms.
“IT companies and freelancers will no longer be required to submit Form ‘R’ for every individual export transaction,” the central bank said in the statement.
“Instead, they will provide a one-time declaration, clearly specifying the nature of services being offered overseas, at the time of the opening of a new account and, in the case of existing customers, as and when required.” It added. “Authorised dealers (banks) will tag the relevant service and purpose code with the exporters’ account for reporting and processing export transactions, unless advised otherwise by the exporter.”
A maximum turnaround time of one working day has been introduced for processing inward export receipts and outward remittances from Exporters’ Special Foreign Currency Accounts (ESFCAs), according to the SBP.
IT companies and freelancers will be allowed to retain $5,000 (or equivalent) per month or 50 per cent of the export proceeds, whichever is higher, in their ESFCAs, the SBP said in the circular issued the same day.
Authorised dealers will mandatorily credit the permissible amounts in these ESFCAs, unless the exporter specifically requests, in writing, preferably at the time of account opening, that a lesser amount or no export proceeds be credited in the ESFCA, it added. Balances held in the ESFCAs of IT companies may be utilised for making all types of payments of a current account nature (for example, imports, acquisition of services from abroad, profit and dividend repatriation against registered shares, etc.) for their own business purposes without SBP’s prior approval.
Documentation requirements for outward remittances from ESFCAs for acquiring services from abroad have been standardised to promote clarity and consistency across banks. Banks have been instructed to establish effective internal systems to ensure the timely resolution of complaints raised by IT companies and freelancers, thereby enhancing service quality and responsiveness. Besides the above measures, the reporting requirements for exporters and importers of services have also been simplified through revisions in Form ‘R’, the Inward Remittance Voucher (IRV), and Form ‘M’.
The threshold level for obtaining Form ‘R’ has been increased to above $25,000 (or equivalent in other currencies), providing convenience to the beneficiaries, the SBP said. Banks have been advised to digitalise Form ‘R’ and Form ‘M’ with auto-population functionality for the customer’s basic data to further promote ease of doing business.
