Editorial
Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled services exports reached USD 4.184 billion in the first eleven months of FY26, compared to USD 3.475 billion in the same period last year. That is growth of nearly 20 percent and it deserves recognition. In an economy where goods exports continue to struggle and the trade deficit remains a persistent pressure point, the IT sector is delivering something genuinely valuable: dollars earned without heavy import dependence.
May 2026 added USD 373 million, up 13 percent year-on-year. The monthly figures have been uneven, with April reaching USD 423 million and March USD 413 million, but the broader direction is clear. With one month of the fiscal year remaining, full-year IT exports should comfortably cross USD 4.5 billion.
Freelancers are now a significant part of this story. Their earnings crossed USD 1.06 billion in eleven months, up from USD 708 million the previous year, and their share of total IT exports has risen to roughly one quarter. That is an impressive shift. But it also reveals the sector’s next challenge. Pakistan has scale in freelancing. What it still lacks is value. Too much of the work remains low-ticket and low-margin. The transition must move toward artificial intelligence, cloud services, cybersecurity, data science, fintech, healthtech, and enterprise software.
The budget has provided some encouragement. Extending the 0.25 percent final tax regime for IT exporters until June 2029 offers the sector a degree of policy certainty. Reducing withholding tax on foreign digital payments from 5 percent to 0.5 percent helps freelancers and smaller firms operating on global platforms. These are welcome steps.
But moving from USD 4.5 billion to USD 10 billion requires more than tax relief. It demands serious investment in skills, reliable connectivity, accessible payment systems, and conditions that attract foreign investment. Pakistan has the talent. The real test now is execution.
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