Mobile phones imports in Pakistan witnessed a decline of over 10% in last fiscal year

Mobile phones imports saw a decline of 10.87% in the last fiscal year (July-June) 2018-2019 and stayed at $755.545 million compared to $847.654 million during the same time period of 2017-2018. The cell phone imports in June 2019 were $57.733 million, which is a 34.18% negative growth as compared to $87.717 million imports previously in June 2018, as reported by Business Recorder.

As revealed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the revenue figure last month for mobile imports was 12.27% lower as compared to the $65.81 million in May 2019. The imports witnessed a phenomenal hike of 19.44% in the fiscal year 2017-18 as it remained $847.654 million as compared to $709.690 million during the same time period pf 2016-17.

During the period of July-June (2018-19), the overall imports saw a decline of 10.07% as compared to the same period of 2017-18. Total imports were registered at $1.379 billion during 2018-19 which is a 25.14% negative growth as compared to $1.534 billion in June-July (2017-18). This figure was registered at $103.234 million in June 2019 as compared to $119.588 million during May 2019. Overall telecom imports were registered at $1.534 billion during 2017-18 as compared to $1.351 billion in 2016-17.

Meanwhile, the other telecom apparatus imports saw a decline of over 9.08% in July-June (2018-19) as they were registered at $624.115 million compared to $686.432 million during the same period of 2017-18. Comparing with the figure from May 2019, other telecom apparatus imports recorded 15.39% negative growth in June as they were $45.501 million compared to $50.191 million in May 2019.

Other telecom apparatus imports witnessed a rise of over 6.9% in 2017-18 as they were $686.432 million compared to $642.119 million during the same period of 2016-17.

All of this decline in the imports is because of the hefty taxes the government has imposed on the import of mobile phones in Pakistan. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has divided the tax amount into two main categories of Commercial Imports and Baggage (Individual) Imports, which are further divided into 6 main pricing segments starting from below 30 USD. For Commercial Imports cellphones priced below $30 will be charged a flat rate of Rs. 370. Mobile phones which are priced between $30 and less than $100 will be charged Rs. 3,670. Similarly, the phones between the range of $100 and $200, phones will be charged a flat rate Rs. 5,440.