Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) MP Dr. Swarnim Wagle said that the current budget has ignored the IT sectors with immense potential. Speaking in the meeting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Wagle said that the country could be made prosperous from the IT sector, but the government has not thought about it.
“How much potential does the IT sector have in Nepal? How many Nepalis work for foreign companies? We had studied this from the private sector. Hearing the preliminary facts and figures of this, it can be estimated that it can bring a small earthquake in the economic ‘landscape’ of Nepal,” he said. “We have narrowed down to the language that we will adopt a digital economy that will shift the same axle in this new transformative sector. But we have not addressed the transformative potential that exists.”
He said that the budget has ignored the immense and unlimited potential of IT. He also said that he could not even realize the difference of its potential. He said that middle-level people earn around $6,395 and senior level people earn around $15,322 while working in Nepal.
“According to our data, 7,637 IT companies are registered with the Office of the Company Registrar. About 7,000 pay taxes. There are 106 export-oriented IT exporters,” he said. “There are 66,509 freelancers working from free lancer rooms. Their average income is $4,723. Their annual income is around $5,000. This income is not a trivial matter. The per capita income of Ukraine, which is currently at war, is $5,000.”
Wagle adds, “The per capita income of those earning from the IT sector at the senior level is higher than the per capita income of Russia, China and Malaysia. This dynamic sector is right here. The person you have tea with and work in the corner may be working with the big economies of the world like this.”
He said that such workers earn more than 510 million annually. He said that foreign currency can also be earned extensively from such sectors. However, he said that the laws and rules need to be improved.
