Ease of Doing Business

  1. Board Of Investment
  2. Ease of Doing Business

The World Bank Group’s Doing Business project provides a measure of the “Ease of Doing Business” through a set of objective indicators that focus on the impacts of laws, regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies. Pakistan has consistently making efforts to improve business environment in the country. Since 2016, almost 300 reforms have been implemented to improve investment climate in the country .Resultantly, Pakistan improved 39 positions in EODB ranking in the last two years and was placed at 108 th position. Pakistan was recognized as the top reformer in South Asia and sixth reformer in the world Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria.

DB20 recognized the following six major reforms in Pakistan:

  • Company can now be registered in one day with SECP& FBR. Data is transferred to Labour Dept, PESSI, SESSI and EOBI in real time. Only SECP portal is used. End to End integration of 9 departments has been made.
  • Getting construction permits now takes 108 days in Lahore and 134 days in Karachi as opposed to 266 and 261 days originally.
  • Commercial property can now be registered in 22 days in Lahore and 149 days in Karachi instead of 25 and 208 days previously.
  • Commercial electricity connection can now be obtained in 73 days in Lahore and 134 days in Karachi as opposed to 117 and 185 days in previous report. Online portals of LESCO and K-Electric have been launched. Tariff changes are announced in advance.
  • Online payment of Taxes has been introduced. The numbers of payments are now measured at 34 from 47 and time for paying taxes has reduced substantially. Tax rates for small companies reduced from 25% to 2 4%
  • WEBOC Customs software has reduced time to export for border compliance from 75 hrs to 58 hrs and time for Imports for documentary compliance from143 hrs 96hrs

Ease of Doing Business Report 2021: This report is expected to be launched in October 2020. However, for DB report 2021, more than reform actions and 30 data challenges have been submitted to the World Bank and it is expected that Pakistan will register further improvement this year.

  • Starting a Business Made Easier
  • Registering Property Made Easier
  • Construction Permits Made Easier
  • Paying Taxes Made Easier
  • Getting Electricity Made Easier
  • Trading Across Borders Made Easier
Updates center image
Doing Business Rank by Years
  • 144
    2017
  • 147
    2018
  • 136
    2019
  • 108
    2020
Indicator Positions Jumped DB20 Rank DB19 Rank
Overall - out of 190 28 108 136
Starting a business (reform) 58 72 130
Dealing with Construction Permits 54 112 166
Getting Electricity (reform) 44 123 167
Registering Property 10 151 161
Paying Taxes 12 161 173
Trading Across Borders 31 111 142
Getting Credit (7) 119 112
Protecting Minority Investors (2) 28 26
Enforcing Contracts 0 156 156
Resolving Insolvency (Negative Data Correction) (5) 58 53

The Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first speech to the Nation mentioned his commitment to improve business climate. The “Doing Business Reform Strategy 2018-21” is the national roadmap for improving Pakistan’s Investment Climate. The Strategy is designed to create an enabling environment for attracting higher investment (both foreign as well as domestic) to help boost the country’s growth prospects. In order to achieve this objective, the Strategy encompasses a set of comprehensive reform actions not only at the federal government level but also includes provinces in the reform initiatives falling within their domains. The reforms focus on regulatory changes, improving technology and simplification of procedures.

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