ISLAMABAD: The integration of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) resulted in the corporate registration of 1,969 companies with the FBR.

According to the data released by the SECP on Friday, the SECP registered 2,361 new companies in October 2022. This shows an increase of 17% as compared to corresponding period last month. The total number of registered companies now stands at 180,996.

Foreign investment has been reported in 77 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Korea South, Lebanon, Lithuania, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, the UK, and the US.

Total capitalization (paid-up-capital) with regard to newly incorporated companies for the current month stood at Rs 3 billion.

In October, about 60 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while 37 percent were registered as single member companies. About three percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership (LLP). Nearly 99.8 percent companies were registered online.

The real estate development and construction sector took the lead with incorporation of 432, information technology with 355, trading with 279, services with 234, food & beverages with 93, ecommerce with 92, tourism with 84, education with 83, corporate agricultural farming with 72, marketing and advertisement with 56, engineering with 45, power generation with 44, and 814 companies were registered in other sectors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022