1
Back in the old days, we used to have two days dedicated to a mainstream discussion of the economy, just around the release of the annual economic survey and the budget. Half of that was spent on the share of defence in overall expenditure and the meagre allocation to education and health.
While Pakistan’s macro uncertainty of the past few years has brought the conversation around the economy into the mainstream, nothing really beats the excitement and rush of these two days especially if one is involved in the media or financial services industry. Even if it’s the same cycle of lobbying, promises, lofty targets, shoddy data and wishful thinking.
For now, let’s just stick to what the two documents had in store for Pakistan’s technology industry which after a healthy 2021-22 was hoping to get more attention from the government.
And it kind of did, with an annexe on the IT sector in the latest Economic Survey. But the publication was nothing short of a disappointment, to me at least, as it hardly shared any new or important data point. Instead, it went on about the usual increase in IT exports or the number of broadband users — stuff that everyone who bothers to read the survey will know by heart.
A smattering of measures for IT may hamper more than help
The budget was mostly a non-event too, with most of the recommendations of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) ignored and in some cases, even going against them. For example, the IT body had proposed the...
Read Full Story: https://www.dawn.com/news/1694584/budget-special-bland-incentives-for-tech
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.
