Pakistan’s mobile phone imports surge by over 51pc to $1.31bn

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country’s mobile phone imports have witnessed a dramatic increase of 51.59 percent to $1.311 billion over the course of eight months of the current financial year 2020-21.

As per details, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1311.497 million during July-February (2020-21) as compared to the imports of $865.180 million during July-February (2019-20), showing growth of 51.59 percent.

On year-to-year basis, the import of mobile phones also rose by 68.11 percent during the month of February 2021 compared to the same month of last year. The import of mobiles into the country during February 2021 was recorded at $175.823 million as compared to the exports of $104.590 million in February 2020.

On month-on-month basis, the imports of mobile phones however witnessed decrease of 10.68 percent during February 2021, as compared to the imports of $196.855 million during January 2021, according to the data.

According to an official in a cellphone company who talked to Dawn, he mobile phone market is now in full swing with particularly massive demand within the price range of Rs10,000-40,000 in which many companies are competing with one another.

The main reason for the heavy demand within the price range is the prevalence of online education in today’s COVID-dominated world as well as the increasing utilization of e-commerce platforms for everything from food to clothing.

The official said Korean and Chinese manufacturers have been presenting one to two new cellphones every one to two months in the range of Rs15,000-25,000 with 2/3 GB RAM and 32/64 GB storage options which has provided a big relief to people who cannot afford costly cellphones with prices starting from Rs50,000.

Meanwhile, a cellphone manufacturer based in Karachi said that sales of 2G phones are still thriving as many people cannot afford over Rs10,000 cellphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) website, the number of cellphone subscribers soared to 178 million in January from 168m in July 2020.

It is worth noting that Pakistan produced 1.21 million mobile phones over the course of the first two months of 2021. The surge in phone production has been attributed to the significant drop in cellphone smuggling over the same period.