Budget's Aim: Delivering 'Significant Reforms' Essential for Startups to Prosper and Grow
The upcoming budget, drawing near on June 10, has startup enthusiasts buzzing with anticipation. Business Recorder talked to key figures in Pakistan's burgeoning startup ecosystem, gauging their hopes and expectations.
Amid a troubling decline in startup funding, some stay optimistic, while others see only surface-level policies. Syed Azfar Hussain, Project Director at National Incubation Center Karachi, envisions the budget as a potential game-changer. He envisions the budget providing seed grants, tax incentives, and export facilitation, investing in digital infrastructure, and boosting innovation through public procurement.
Despite these hopes, he notes that continued support for the Pakistan Software Export Board—responsible for freelancer training, IT export promotion, and the recent Digital Foreign Direct Investment event in Islamabad—plays a crucial role. Similarly, the Ignite National Technology Fund, instrumental in funding incubation, R&D, and entrepreneurial programs, remains vital.
Meanwhile, a COLABS representative expressed cautious optimism, acknowledging some support in the form of tax relief for the IT sector, youth loan schemes, and digital service expansion. However, they note that deeper challenges like fragmented tax systems, regulatory uncertainty, and limited access to finance remain unaddressed. They hope the budget introduces policies to ease doing business, streamline registration, compliance, and tracking, and incentivize early-stage ventures.
They call for public funding for accelerators and startup hubs in smaller cities, arguing it will level the playing field for startups and SMEs. COLABS further advocates simplified procedures, easier compliance, tax holidays or incentives for early-stage ventures, and a one-window digital portal for smoother business operations.
Hamad Dawood, the brainchild behind e-commerce concierge service Farmaish, reflects these sentiments. He aspires for compliance to be less of a headache, advocating for a tax holiday for at least five years and tax credits for startup investments.
In simpler terms, building a startup is challenging enough, so compliance should be a piece of cake. Farmaish, being a small, bootstrapped e-commerce startup, faces complications like being liable to pay GST, while some importers and wholesalers evade taxes.
These startup leaders share a common wishlist: a conducive business environment, government-backed venture funds or credit guarantees, public funding for accelerators and hubs, simplified procedures, tax incentives, easier compliance guidelines, and a one-window digital portal to streamline business operations. Their unified message to the government: make the startup journey less of a rocky road!
- Syed Azfar Hussain, in discussing the upcoming budget, expressed hopes for seed grants, tax incentives, and export facilitation, aiming to invest in digital infrastructure and boost innovation.
- Meanwhile, a COLABS representative expressed cautious optimism, hoping for policies to ease doing business, streamline registration, compliance, and tracking, and incentivize early-stage ventures.
- Hamad Dawood, from e-commerce startup Farmaish, shared a similar wishlist, advocating for a tax holiday for at least five years and tax credits for startup investments, aiming to simplify compliance procedures.
- These startup leaders called for a conducive business environment, government-backed venture funds or credit guarantees, public funding for accelerators and hubs in smaller cities, simplified procedures, tax incentives, easier compliance guidelines, and a one-window digital portal to streamline business operations. Their collective message to the government: make the startup journey less of a rocky road!
