In order to promote digital payments, SBP has been taking steps to make them more secure, introducing new features and promoting their use. In consultation with the industry and other stakeholders, SBP has taken more steps to make digital transactions and card payments more secure and easier. Now the consumers will only have Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) Chip and PIN …

Exporters of goods and services, including IT-based services, are allowed to retain a certain portion of their export proceeds in their Special Foreign Currency Accounts. The fund from these accounts, however, could be utilized for specified purposes only. Over time the types of payments that exporters need to make have increased as exports are becoming more diversified. In order to …

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has deputed a team of tax officials to analyze data of 100 million persons received from mobile phone companies. Highly-placed officials in the FBR told Propakistani that the FBR will issue notices to the subscribers of mobile phones on the basis of the higher amount of withholding tax being deducted on calls. The notices …

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has notified the revisions in Foreign Exchange Manual (chapter 20) to facilitate startups, fintechs, and exports. Accordingly, the new policy for equity investment abroad will attract foreign direct investment through the establishment of holding companies by Pakistani fintech and startups; support exports by facilitating exporters to establish subsidiaries or branch offices outside Pakistan; and, allow …

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are jointly implementing a new system for electronic issuance of income tax refunds by directly crediting the amount into the exporter’s bank accounts. In this connection, the FBR has issued a notification for introducing draft amendments in the Income Tax Rules 2002 here on Wednesday. The FBR …

State Bank of Pakistan has proposed a new type of loan for supporting startups to meet the specific needs in raising capital for setting up business and operations on a sustainable basis. A startup company may raise funds from abroad in the form of convertible debt, i.e., the lender shall have the option to convert the loan into the equity …

Mike Spencer, head of investor relations at Microsoft has revealed in an interview with the New York Times that the Xbox Series X gaming console is expected to face supply constraints until at least June this year. Past reports speculated that the supply shortage for the gaming console will last until April, but now it has been confirmed that it will …

According to recent reports, China’s multinational conglomerate Tencent has been caught up in a defamation suit by TikTok’s owner company ByteDance. The two firms have been fierce rivals for years and their founders Zhang Yiming and Pony Ma have traded barbs on many occasions. This time, the bicker was induced by the fact that Tencent blocked Douyin’s (TikTok’s Chinese variant) …

Soon after esports became an official sport in Pakistan, the government of KP has announced that it will work on improving the local video gaming industry. The announcement comes from the KP Science and Technology and Information Technology Department. The Adviser to Chief Minister on Information Technology, Ziaullah Bangash, said: There is no shortage of talent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, we …

The securities brokers, futures brokers, insurance companies, Takaful Operators, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and Modarabas would now be required to strictly monitor and regulate the transactions of their occasional customers’ under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and SECP’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), being the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Regulatory Authority, has …