‘Freelancers to start receiving payments from PayPal in February’
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Dr. Umar Saif on Thursday said that under the pilot project, 10,000 freelancers would start receiving payments from PayPal in February.
Addressing a Tech Destination Pakistan event that featured the launch of E-Rozgar Centers in the country, he said, “In February, we are going to start the first pilot project in which 10,000 freelancers in Pakistan would be able to start receiving payments through PayPal.”
The minister further mentioned that in March, the programme would be scaled up and everyone would have access to payments from PayPal and Stripe across the country. He clarified that while PayPal itself is not coming to Pakistan, an agreement has been reached where remittances would be channeled through PayPal via a third party. Under the newly devised programme, the freelancers will not need to open a PayPal account. Instead, individuals outside the country will make payments from their PayPal accounts, and the funds will be promptly deposited into the freelancers' accounts, the minister explained.
The minister said that the government has devised a mechanism for the opening of bank accounts for freelancers. He mentioned that only freelancers would have to provide evidence that they have an account on Fiverr, Upwork, Elance, Toptal, or Crossover.
The minister added, “The IT industry would have a 50 percent dollar retention policy, which means that whatever you earn, you can keep 50 percent of that in dollars. You will get a debit card from that bank so that you can freely spend that money domestically or internationally.”
He said that the main objective behind the E-Rozgaar centers is to provide state-of-the-art infrastructure to enhance freelancers’ productivity and bolster Pakistan's digital ecosystem. Currently, he informed that work on almost 40 E-Rozgaar centers is in progress, and it is expected that all these E-Rozgaar centers shall be made operational by 19th February 2024. Dr. Umar Saif said that the first standardized quality test for the 75,000 information technology graduates would be conducted on January 15.
