KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has imposed a duty of Rs250 on smartphones worth Rs15,000 or above while Rs300 has been levied on cheaper handsets worth Rs6,000 or above.
The Board levied regulatory duty on 731 import items, of which 331 were new goods while 307 were subject to a higher duty in the range of 5% to 30%.
The FBR’s decision was aimed at balancing the increasing gap between imports and exports since the country imports one million handsets every month.
However, industry experts say the duty on mobile phone sets will hurt the information technology sector as it will encourage smuggling of handsets as the incentive for illicit trade has increased with the levy.
The government is making efforts to increase digitisation in the country, however, the taxes on mobile phones would hamper smartphone penetration, which would eventually hurt the digitisation goal.
