State Bank of Pakistan streamlines export receipt and remittance processing for IT exporters and freelancers

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued reforms for IT exporters and freelancers to simplify export proceeds realization and related reporting, standardize documentation, set transaction processing timelines, and strengthen banks’ complaint handling. Under the new approach, IT companies and freelancers will not need to submit Form “R” for each individual export transaction and will instead provide a one-time declaration of the nature of overseas services at new account opening, and for existing customers as and when required. Authorized Dealers (banks) must tag the relevant service and purpose code to the exporter’s account for reporting and processing unless advised otherwise. SBP also introduced a maximum turnaround time of one working day for processing inward export receipts and outward remittances from Exporters’ Special Foreign Currency Accounts (ESFCAs), standardized documentation requirements for outward remittances from ESFCAs to acquire services from abroad, and instructed banks to put in place internal systems to ensure timely complaint resolution. Separately, reporting requirements for exporters and importers of services have been simplified via revisions to Form “R”, the Inward Remittance Voucher (IRV), and Form “M”, including raising the threshold for obtaining Form “R” to amounts above USD 25,000 (or equivalent). Banks have also been advised to digitalize Form “R” and Form “M” with auto-population functionality for customers’ basic data.