The Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 26,502 new companies in FY 2021-22 (FY22), which shows an increase of 4 percent as compared to the previous fiscal year. The total number of registered companies with SECP now stands at 172,206.
The real estate development and construction sector led the number of new incorporations with 4,791 new companies registered, followed by information technology with 3,760 new companies and trading with 3,534 new companies.
As a result of end-to-end digitization of the company incorporation process, about 99.5 percent of companies were registered online while 1,640 foreign users were registered from overseas.
SECP has made significant reforms to facilitate the registration of companies by fully digitizing the registration process, along with company registration certificates. With this automation, companies can now be registered online from any part of the world, without needing to visit SECP offices. SECP’s e-services have been integrated with Provincial Revenue Departments to facilitate the registration of companies with the departments at the time of incorporation. Company tax numbers are also issued online.
In addition, an online portal has also been created for banks to facilitate companies in opening corporate accounts after registration. SECP has launched a WhatsApp helpline as well to provide immediate assistance to the investors. All these measures led to notable improvements in ease of doing business, one result of which can be seen through a steady increase in the number of new incorporations.
During the fiscal year 2022, nearly 64 percent of companies were registered as private limited companies, while 33 percent were registered as single-member companies. Three percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, foreign companies, and limited liability partnerships (LLP).
SECP data shows the services sector with 2,408 new incorporations, e-commerce with 1,038, education with 962, food & beverages 937, tourism 790, textile 701, marketing & advertisement 671, corporate agricultural farming 622, engineering 611, and pharmaceutical with 534 new incorporations.
Similarly, healthcare had 492 new incorporations, chemical 431, transport 423, mining & quarrying 361, logging 332, power generation 326, auto & allied 303, communication 251, cosmetics & toiletries 225, paper & board 218, cables and electric goods 212, fuel & energy 211, broadcasting & telecasting 161, steel & allied 135, wood & wood products 110, arts & culture 109, parlour & other related services 79, sports & allied 72, leather & tanneries 69, synthetic & rayon 55, sports goods 47, finance & banking 45, footwear 38, glass & ceramics, and vanaspati & allied with 28 each, insurance 17, cement 10 while 355 companies were registered in other sectors.
Foreign investment has been reported in 672 new companies from Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Myanmar, Canada, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea South, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, the UK Ukraine, the USA, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zambia.
As a result of the integration of SECP with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and various provincial departments, 25,042 companies were registered with FBR for the generation of National Tax Number (NTN), 539 companies with Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), and 234 companies with Punjab Employees Social Security Institution and Sindh Employees Social Security Institution PESSI/SESSI and 343 companies with Excise and Taxation department.
