Govt moves to ease IT financing, boost exports

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance and Revenue has constituted an IT and Digital Finance Sub-Committee of the Access to Finance (A2F) Steering Committee to identify financing constraints confronting the information technology sector and recommend measures to boost exports of IT products and services.

According to a notification issued by the Finance Division’s Internal Finance Wing, the sub-committee has been constituted with immediate effect on the directives of the Minister for Finance and Revenue.

The Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will chair the body while the Adviser to the Finance Minister on Strategic Initiatives (SI) will serve as co-chair.

Its members include the Secretary of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, chief executive or chief operating officer of the Pakistan Banks Association, chairman of the Pakistan Software Export Board, chairman of the Pakistan Software Houses Association, Zeeshan Ahmed, a member of the board of directors of GridPoint Pvt Ltd, the SBP executive director/chief technology officer and the executive director of the SBP’s Financial Inclusion Group, who will also serve as member-secretary.

The notification said additional members could be co-opted as required.

The sub-committee has been assigned two key performance indicators: identifying financing challenges faced by the IT sector and proposing solutions to remove barriers; and recommending policy measures and financial-service frameworks to promote exports of IT products and services.

Its terms of reference (TORs) provide a resolution target date (RTD) mechanism under which quick-win issues are to be resolved within 30 days, complex matters within 60 to 90 days and structural reforms within 120 days.

The chair will submit a weekly status report to the A2F Steering Committee Secretariat every Friday by 5pm through a standardised dashboard using a red-amber-green (RAG) rating along with a narrative update.

The TORs also provide for an escalation mechanism for unresolved issues. At the first stage, the sub-committee chair will raise a matter with the Adviser to the Finance Minister on SI within one to two days. If unresolved, it will be escalated by the adviser to the finance minister on the third day, after which the A2F Secretariat will take a decision within five working days of the escalation.

All decisions, actions and designated officials responsible for implementation will be recorded in the A2F Decision Register maintained by the Ministry of Finance Secretariat.

The A2F Steering Committee will review the sub-committee’s KPIs at each meeting, comparing baseline, current and target positions over 12- and 24-month periods. Any KPI marked red will trigger an action plan within 48 hours.

The TORs will be reviewed every six months or upon completion of major work streams by the A2F Steering Committee.

The sub-committee will identify major financing challenges, define specific A2F work streams with target dates and designated leads, propose measures to remove bottlenecks in access to finance, and oversee weekly progress. Delays requiring intervention will be escalated to the A2F Steering Committee.