Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan has removed the requirement of Form ‘R’ for freelancers and directed banks to process payments within 24 hours, bringing major relief to the freelancing community.
According to details, the central bank has introduced significant regulatory relaxations for IT companies and freelancers to promote digital services exports in the country.
These reforms aim to eliminate bureaucratic hurdles and accelerate the growth of the IT sector.
Under the new policy, IT exporters will no longer need to submit Form ‘R’ for every transaction. Instead, a one-time declaration at the time of account opening will be sufficient, after which banks will process transactions automatically.
The State Bank has also instructed banks to handle requests for receiving or sending funds from foreign currency accounts within one working day (24 hours).
The threshold for submitting Form ‘R’ has been increased to $25,000, reducing the administrative burden on small and medium-sized freelancers.
All banks have been directed to establish a dedicated internal system for promptly addressing complaints from IT exporters.
The central bank has also encouraged the digitization of Form ‘R’, Inward Remittance Voucher (IRV), and Form ‘M’, along with automated data entry facilities.
The State Bank expects these measures to improve the flow of remittances and make it significantly easier for young professionals working in the IT export sector to conduct business.
Meanwhile, Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja welcomed the reforms, stating that an effective complaint redressal system has been introduced and that these steps will play an important role in the growth of IT exports and the freelancing sector.
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