IT Sector Loses More Than $1 Million Per Hour Due to Internet Shutdowns

Pakistan’s Information Technology sector suffered losses of more than $1 million per hour on account of the internet shutdown, said Sajjad Mustafa Syed, chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA). “To achieve the government’ envisaged target of $15 billion IT exports is linked with market access, infrastructure stability, accommodative taxation policy as well as skilled human resources,”  said chairman P@SHA, while talking to media persons here on Tuesday. He further said that if the government invests one dollar in market access, it results in return of $49, as evident from the last three years pattern. He said that the IT sector has registered around 40 percent, taking the exports to $3.2 billion. He said that 55 percent of IT exports in Pakistan are going to the US followed by 20 percent to Europe. However, the government needs to focus and invest in branding to realize the actual potential of the sector. Talking about the outcome of repeated internet shutdowns in the country, Syed said that 99 percent of firms/companies reported that their services were disrupted and 90 percent reported losses. Quoting an example, the chairman said that due to a recent internet shutdown, one call center suffered a penalty of $2 million. Talking about duties and taxes, he said that the sector pays taxes on its revenue, which hurts it, and urged the government for tax incentives to allow the sector to flourish, and bring remittances as well as investment. He further said that a free virtual private network is a risk for data security, and the government should adopt a VPN service provider pattern to make it more secure and industry-friendly. He further said that P@SHA plays a role in policy harmonization as it should not be in isolation.