ISLAMABAD: Despite the government’s effort to curtail import bill the country imported mobile phones worth Rs55 billion during first seven months of current fiscal year.
According to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS) the import cell phones increased to Rs55.113 billion during July – January 2018/2019 as compared with Rs48.71 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, showing an increase of 13.13 percent. This rise, however, can be attributed to massive depreciation of Pak Rupee against US dollar.
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In dollar term the volume of mobile phone import declined by 7.11 percent to $423.82 million as compared with $456.52 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
Industry experts said that the decline in import of mobile phones was mainly due to new registration system introduced by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The PTA blocked all the unregistered SIM/IMEI by January 15, 2019 and any mobile phone enter into Pakistani territory is required registration. Mobile phone import declines by 18.69pc on unregistered IMEI blocking. Bill proposes valuation in US Dollar for imported mobile phones to collect smart phone levy
