LAHORE: The government has reduced regulatory and additional customs duties on imported mobile phones for FY2026-27, with regulatory duty (RD) on premium smartphones priced above $500 cut by 20% to Rs17,600 per unit from Rs22,000.
According to a Ministry of Commerce brief, Additional Customs Duty (ACD) has also been reduced from 6% to 4% across the listed smartphone and cellular-phone categories as part of tariff rationalisation under the National Tariff Policy 2025-30.
For completely built-up (CBU) smartphones priced up to $30, RD has been reduced to Rs240 from Rs300. For phones priced between $30 and $100, it has been cut to Rs2,400 from Rs3,000.
The duty on handsets priced between $100 and $200 has fallen to Rs6,000 from Rs7,500, while the rate for the $200-$350 category has been reduced to Rs8,800 from Rs11,000.
For smartphones valued between $350 and $500, RD has been lowered to Rs12,000 from Rs15,000. Phones priced above $500 will attract RD of Rs17,600, down Rs4,400 from the previous Rs22,000 per handset.
For smartphones and cellular phones imported in completely knocked-down (CKD) or semi-knocked-down (SKD) condition, regulatory duty has been reduced to 4% from 5%, while ACD has been cut to 4% from 6%.
The tariff reductions come after Pakistan’s smartphone and cellular-phone imports rose to $1.888 billion in FY2025-26 from $1.497 billion a year earlier. CBU smartphone imports more than doubled to $357.7 million.
The Ministry of Commerce noted that the Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy 2020-25 had expired and a new policy had yet to receive federal government approval.
However, incentives available to mobile manufacturers and assemblers under the expired policy remain protected under the Fifth Schedule of the Customs Act, 1969.
