Islamabad: Adviser to Prime Minister for Information Technology Sardar Latif Khosa has announced that his ministry has sent recommendation to the Federal Government to withdraw all type of taxes and duties on computer and computer related accessories. He said that IT sector is vital for the growth of overall economic development of the country. Thus,   the government would ensure every possible measure that ensures the growth of IT sector. He said that there is no proposal under consideration at any governmental level to ban used computer as such measures would deprive common man from a personal computer, especially our students. He expressed this while talking to a delegation of Pakistan Computer Association (PCA), led by led by Mr. Arshad Janjua Acting President PCA Central, Abdullah Malik President PCA Islamabad, Mr. Malik Kaleem Lahore, Tauseef Mirza, Faisalabad, and Mr. Nisar Ahmed from Rawalpindi met him at his office last day. Mr. Zia Imran, Manging Director Pakistan Software Export Board, Mr. Tariq Badshah Member IT and Mian Zulqarnain, Joint Secretary IT, were also present on the occasion.

Sardar Latif Khosa assured the delegation that the government wants to facilitate IT industry in Pakistan and would not take any step regarding industry without a proper consultation and taking the stakeholders into confidence. Earlier, Mr. Abdullah Malik, being the spokesman for PCA, raised the longstanding issue of GST on IT and said that it is the unanimous demand of PCA that all taxes and duties on IT should immediately be waived off.

Abdullah Malik said that due to ill conceived policies of last dictatorial regime, the IT has lagged behind in this region. Our neighboring countries i.e. China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia have made tremendous expansion in the field of IT in the last two decades. In order to fill this gap and for a rapid growth in the field of IT we need to give a tax holiday to IT for at least next ten years.

He elaborated that the total tax collection on IT is a peanut, in comparison to our total budget. He said that any ban on used computers would not be in the interest of IT industry. He also raised the issue of Printers ITP revised by FBR recently and demanded the development of IT Parks in the major cities.

The PCA delegation was comprised on Mr. Arshad Janjua Acting President PCA Central, Malik Kaleem, Mr. Jahangir Akhter, Mr. Rizwan Yousaf, Mr. Mumtaz Alam Mr. Ayyub Butt, Mr. Waseem and Rashid from PCA Lahore,   Tahir Rasheed Hashmi and Mr. Bilal Yaqoob, PCA Faisalabad, Mr. Nisar Ahmed, Mr. Muhtesham Shami, Mr Zafar Mahmood, Rawalpindi. Mr. Abdullah Malik, Mr. Furqan Murtaza, Mr. Babar Mughal, Mr. Asad Haider, Mr. Shahid and Mr. Osama Asad PCA, Islamabad.