Pkrevenue.com

Tag: State Bank of Pakistasn

  • SBP allows transfer of up to $200,000 as payment for foreign digital services

    SBP allows transfer of up to $200,000 as payment for foreign digital services

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed banks to release a maximum amount of $200,000 per year as payment for digital services provided by foreign companies.

    The central bank on Thursday issued a new mechanism for payments to globally recognized digital service provider companies against acquisition of digital services by local companies for ease of doing business in the country.

    The SBP amended Foreign Exchange Manual and allowed general permission to banks to release foreign exchange up to a maximum of USD 200,000/-, or equivalent in other currencies, per year, for each company/ firm/ sole proprietorship incorporated/ established in Pakistan on account of commercial payments, pertaining to digital services, in favor of digital service provider companies.

    The release of payment is limited to foreign companies listed by the SBP, which are included:

    1.  Adobe

    2.  Affinity

    3.  Airtable

    4.  Alibaba Group

    5.  Amazon

    6.  Apple

    7.  AppLovin

    8.  Asana

    9.  Atlassian

    10.  Box

    11.  Calendly

    12.  Coursera

    13. Digital Ocean

    14. DocSend

    15. DocuSign

    16. Dropbox

    17. Expensify

    18. Facebook

    19. Figma

    20. FreshBooks

    21. Front

    22. GoDaddy

    23. Google

    24. Hootsuite

    25. Hubspot

    26. IBM

    27. Instagram

    28. Intercom

    29. InVision

    30. LinkedIn Corporation

    31. Mailchimp

    32. Marketo

    33. Mendix

    34. Microsoft Corporation

    35. Optimizely

    36. Oracle Corporation

    37. Pilot

    38. Pipe Drive

    39. Poynt

    40. Intuit/ QuickBooks

    41. Red Hat/ OpenShift

    42. Sketch

    43. Salesforce

    44. SAP SE / SAP

    45. SEMrush

    46. Shopify

    47. Slack Technologies/Slack

    48. Squarespace

    49. Tencent

    50. Trello

    51. Twilio

    52. Twitter

    53. Udacity

    54. Udemy

    55. VMware

    56. WhatsApp

    57. WordPress

    58. Xero

    59. YouTube

    60. Zapier

    61. Zendesk

    62. Zoom/ Video Communications

    The SBP said that the ultimate beneficiary of remittances should only be the company (including their affiliates or associated entities).

    However, up to a maximum amount of USD 25,000/-, out of the total annual limit of USD 200,000/-, can be remitted to those digital service provider companies which are not listed in the Appendix V 147, against acquisition of digital services.

    The remittances should only be made by an Authorized Dealer designated by the remitter for this purpose under acknowledgement to Foreign Exchange Operations Department (FEOD) SBP-BSC. No Authorized dealer will remit funds under this general permission unless it has been acknowledged as designated Authorized Dealer by the FEOD SBP-BSC.

    The SBP said that the banks will ensure that it has satisfied itself with the genuineness and bonafides of the applicant, through appropriate CDD and customer risk profiling, specifically in light of AML/CFT regulations.

  • Record $2.46 billion as remittances received in June

    Record $2.46 billion as remittances received in June

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday said that the workers’ remittances rose by a significant 50.7 percent during June 2020 to reach record high $2.46 billion compared with $1.63 billion in June 2019.

    Similarly, on a cumulative basis, workers’ remittances increased to a historic high level of $23.12 billion during FY20, witnessing a growth of 6.4 percent over $21.74 billion during FY19.

    The significant increase in remittances during June 2020 can be attributed to a number of factors. Since many of the countries eased lockdown in June, overseas Pakistanis were able to transfer accumulative funds, which they were unable to send earlier.  Further, it is also believed that they sent remittances to support extended families and friends due to COVID-19.

    In addition to these, efforts by the Government and SBP also played their role in the increased inflow of workers’ remittances during FY20 in general and Covid-19 period, March till June 2020, in particular.

    Supportive government policies in terms of extension of Reimbursement of TT Charges Scheme (Free Send Remittance Scheme) to small remitters by reducing threshold from USD 200 to USD 100, as well as, broadening the scope of incentive scheme for marketing scheme for financial institutions increased the incentives for sending remittances through regular channels.

    Further, on-boarding of a large number of technology based money transfer companies by SBP and PRI also helped absorb the shock of lockdowns.

    Financial institutions were motivated to use effective marketing campaigns with particular focus on digital channels for sending and receiving remittances to promote the use of legal channels.

    It would also be pertinent to mention here that inflow of workers’ remittances registered an increase of a 7.8 percent during March-June 2020 pandemic period compared with the corresponding period of 2019.

    During June 2020, larger amounts of Workers’ Remittances are received from Saudi Arabia (US $ 619.4 million), USA (US $ 452.0 million), UAE (US $ 431.7 million) and UK (US $ 401.0 million) recording an increase of 42.0 percent, 7.1 percent, 33.5 percent and 40.8 percent respectively as compared to May, 2020.

  • SBP seeks feedback on automaton of tax refund payment

    SBP seeks feedback on automaton of tax refund payment

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has invited business community to provide feedback on an ongoing project of automation of payment of tax refunds by the central bank.

    Dr. Reza Baqir, Governor, SBP held the online meeting with the business community today to seek feedback on an ongoing project of automation of payment of tax refunds by SBP.

    The meeting was attended by the office bearers of Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) and Chambers of Commerce and Industries of various cities.

    Governor SBP in his opening remarks introduced SBP’s Automation of Payment of Tax Refunds Project saying that after automation of government’s revenue collections, efforts are underway by SBP to automate the government’s payments to ensure transparency, efficiency and public convenience.

    He said that improving ease of doing business is one of the shared goals of the government and SBP for its significant potential impact on boosting economic activity in the country.

    Governor Baqir remarked that Automation of payment of Tax Refunds Project is a part of SBP efforts in this direction in collaboration with FBR and Pakistan Customs. Adding further, he said that since the project is ultimately going to benefit the businesses, it is important that the system is developed in consultation with all the stakeholders including the businesses.

    He emphasized that, in this regard, feedback of businesses is very important since they are the key stakeholders.

    A senior SBP official gave a detailed presentation on the project elaborating that the project constituted two broader components, automation of payment of duty drawback claims and the automation of payment of sales tax refunds.

    After highlighting the issues in the existing mechanisms he explained that how the automation will simplify the processes and bring efficiency in terms of time saving and human resources.

    He highlighted that there will be minimal human intervention in processing and payment of refund claims as the system generated payment messages will be sent to SBP on real time basis through an interface between FBR/Pakistan Customs and SBP for crediting the funds in the claimants’ account.

    The representatives of Chambers of Commerce appreciated the initiative of SBP and provided valuable feedback. They also assured their cooperation to SBP in the development of this project of national importance.

  • SBP cuts policy rate to 9pc to dilute coronavirus impact on growth, employment

    SBP cuts policy rate to 9pc to dilute coronavirus impact on growth, employment

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday reduced key policy rate by 200 basis points to nine percent to cushion the impact of coronavirus shock on growth and employment.

    (more…)