KARACHI: The imposition of 100 percent cash margin requirement has started yielding results as import of mobile phones registered decline of 14.6 percent in February 2017 as compared with the previous month.
The import of mobile phones recorded value of $60.02 million during February 2017 as compared with $70.17 million in January 2017, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
It is worth mentioning here that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on February 24, 2017 imposed 100 percent cash margin requirement to discourage import of non-essential items.
Market sources said that the import of such items would be eased in coming months due to heavy cash margin requirements.
The overall import of mobile phones registered fall of 7.61 percent to $459.37 million during July – February 2016/2017 as compared with $497.2 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
