Madiha Yaqoob
PSEB puts freelancers at more than $1.1 billion of a record $4.6 billion in IT and IT-enabled services exports for FY2025-26, according to TechJuice reporting on the new Top Freelancer Award. Your own share of that figure only counts if your bank issued a Proceeds Realisation Certificate against it. A PRC is the document an authorised dealer bank issues confirming that a specific inward remittance arrived from abroad, landed in your account, and was classified as an export of services rather than a gift or a personal transfer. Without one, money sitting in your account is just money from overseas, and neither FBR nor PSEB has a way to treat it as export income.
Last updated: 20 August 2026.
What a PRC actually certifies
Three things, and it is worth separating them because freelancers routinely assume the first one is enough.
It certifies that the funds came from outside Pakistan. It certifies the amount and the date of realisation. And it certifies the purpose code the bank attached to that transaction. The third item is the one that does the real work. A remittance credited under a generic personal or home-remittance code is documented, but it is not documented as an export.
For IT and IT-enabled services, the code you want to see on the certificate is 9186. If your PRC shows a different code, the certificate exists but it will not support an export-income claim, and fixing it after the fact means going back to the branch with evidence of what the payment was for.
Purpose code 9186 and the tax consequence
Getting the code right is not administrative tidiness. It is the difference between two tax outcomes. Export proceeds properly realised and documented through banking channels qualify for the concessional rate on IT and ITeS exports, and freelancers registered with PSEB sit at the lower end of that. We covered the mechanics in our guide to the 0.25 percent PSEB rate and how to file for it. Undocumented foreign income does not qualify, and it invites questions about source that are far more painful to answer three years later.
TechJuice also notes that PSEB counts more freelance export value than the State Bank records directly, and that analysts attribute the long-running gap to how remittances get reported. That gap is the aggregate version of the same problem: money earned, money received, money never coded as an export.
What changed in April 2026
The State Bank announced a set of reforms for IT exporters and freelancers in early April 2026. As reported by The Express Tribune, the substantive changes were:
- Form R is no longer required per transaction. Freelancers and IT companies now give a one-time declaration describing the nature of the services they sell abroad, at the time of opening a new account. Existing customers provide it as and when needed.
- The bank tags your account. Once you declare, the authorised dealer attaches the relevant service and purpose code to your account and applies it to incoming export transactions unless you tell them otherwise.
- The Form R threshold moved to above $25,000 or the equivalent in another currency.
- One working day maximum turnaround for processing inward export receipts and outward remittances from Exporters Special Foreign Currency Accounts.
- Banks must run internal complaint systems for IT companies and freelancers specifically.
The practical effect of account tagging is that the purpose code question gets settled once, correctly, at the start, instead of being decided by whichever teller processes each individual credit. If you opened your account before this and never made a declaration, that is the highest-value phone call you can make to your bank this week. SBP publishes its foreign exchange circulars at sbp.org.pk/circulars if you want to track later amendments yourself.
Requesting the certificate from your bank
Most authorised dealers generate PRCs automatically once a remittance is credited under an export code. Many do not tell you, and some will not issue one unless you ask by name. The steps that work:
- Confirm your account carries the services declaration and the correct purpose code tag. Ask for this in writing.
- For each remittance, note the value date, the amount in original currency, and the sender.
- Request the PRC by its full name, Proceeds Realisation Certificate, and specify the period you need covered.
- Check the issued certificate for the purpose code before you file it away. Errors are much cheaper to fix in the same month.
Several banks have moved this online. Bank AL Habib operates an ePRC portal for digital issuance and verification, with the certificate available once the remittance has been credited. If your bank still runs this over the counter, that is a reasonable prompt to compare options, though switching banks mid-year creates its own documentation seams.
Why your payment channel decides whether a PRC is possible
This is the part that catches people, and it has nothing to do with fees. A PRC can only be issued against a remittance your Pakistani bank can identify as an inbound service export with supporting documentation. Payment platforms that settle into your account with statements Pakistani banks recognise for this purpose make the certificate straightforward. Platforms that route funds as ordinary transfers, without export-identifiable documentation, leave your bank with nothing to certify against.
So a cheaper transfer route can cost you the concessional tax treatment entirely, which for most working freelancers dwarfs the fee difference. If you are still deciding, our comparison of how to receive international payments as a freelancer in Pakistan walks through the channels. And if you are paid in digital assets, the documentation question is different again, which we looked at in our piece on the Virtual Assets Act 2026 and freelancer payments.
The PSEB award deadline makes this immediate
PSEB introduced a dedicated Top Freelancer Award inside its IT Export Awards 2026, the first time the state has formally recognised individual freelancers. Eligibility requires export remittances received through formal banking channels, Proceeds Realisation Certificates covering July 2025 to June 2026, and an undertaking confirming the information is authentic. Nominations close in August 2026.
Notice what that eligibility list is. It is not a portfolio review or a set of client testimonials. It is your banking paper trail. Freelancers who earned well over the period but never collected PRCs are not eligible, regardless of what their platform dashboard says. For context on the scale of what is being recognised, see our report on Pakistan freelancers hitting record export earnings in FY2026.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get PRCs for remittances I received last year?
Usually yes, if the funds came through your bank and can be traced. Banks can issue certificates retrospectively for credited remittances. The difficulty is the purpose code: if a past credit was booked under a non-export code, reclassifying it requires the branch to accept documentary evidence of what the payment was for, and some will decline. Start with the most recent period and work backwards.
Do I need a separate foreign currency account to get a PRC?
No. A PRC is issued against a realised remittance, not against a particular account type. An Exporters Special Foreign Currency Account matters for a different reason, which is retaining a portion of proceeds in foreign currency rather than converting everything to rupees. The April 2026 turnaround commitment of one working day applies to movements in and out of those accounts.
The short list
Make the one-time services declaration with your bank. Confirm purpose code 9186 is tagged to your account. Collect the PRC for every remittance and check the code on it. Keep them filed by fiscal year. Those four habits take an hour to set up, and they are what separate documented export income from money you cannot explain.
