Mobile phone imports in Pakistan have increased by 6.64 percent during the first ten months (July-April) of the current financial year (2015-16) as compared to the same period of previous year.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), total imports of mobile phone stood at $635.342 million while they were $595.778 million in the same period last year.
Overall telecom imports saw decline of 1.83 percent during July- April 2015-16 compared to the same period in the last year. Total imports were recorded at $1157.89 million compared to $1179.49 million in the same period in the last year.
Other telecom apparatus import also witnessed significant decline of 10.48 percent during this period as it stood at $522.55 million during July-April (2015-16) against $583.71 million during the same period of last year.
Confiscated Phones Unable to Be Auctioned:
Besides, this different collectorates have confiscated thousands of mobile phones. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) can generate handsome amount of revenue through auction of the confiscated smuggled phones. However, the government is not considering any measure to dispose of thousands of confiscated mobile phones by different collectorates. The condition of over thousands of confiscated smuggled mobile phones has deteriorated at different ports. Thousands of smuggled smart phones have been confiscated but the customs is unable to conduct the auction due to conditions of the PTA.
As the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has placed the condition of type approval for the imported mobile phones, it is unable to auction the phones confiscated by the customs at airports etc
Interestingly, the government is losing huge revenue on account of delay in the auction of mobile phone sets.
The condition of type approval by the PTA for the smuggled phones is unnecessary. The smuggled phones have been seized and ready for auction under the law. But the customs is unable to do the same due to such unrealistic conditions on the smuggled phones. Resultantly, all such confiscated smuggled goods would become junk in coming days.
Additional Taxes on Mobile Phones Planned:
Further, the continued regressive tax policy is also hindering in this regard. The government is planning to double sales tax i.e. from Rs 500 and 1000 to 1000 and 2000 respectively for medium and high category/smart phones on the import of mobile phone sets in budget (2016-17). The outcome in this regard would be automatically passed on to the consumers; hence mobile phones rate may go up.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Pakistan remained one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones shipments in 2015 – 123% growth was registered in smartphone shipments to Pakistan between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015.
In the next two years, smartphones are expected to cross 55% of mobile phone imports. Smart phone adoption in Pakistan is expected to grow due to expanding 3G and 4G networks (currently 3G services are available in more than 200 cities and towns) and more affordable smartphones are available in the market.
The condition of type approval by the PTA for the smuggled phones is unnecessary. The smuggled phones have been seized and ready for auction under the law. But the customs is unable to do the same due to such unrealistic conditions on the smuggled phones. Resultantly, all such confiscated smuggled goods would become junk in coming days. . The fact is the govt just wants us to stop importing any phone. recently I imported a phone via aliexpress and it was hell to get it from customs. first they dont even tell you that they detained their parcel and you have to go to GPO for that , then later they ask you to get pta noc. when you give all these docs they put a fixed tax on it and say it is fixed and we cant decrease it. But our neighbor gives free land to mobile manufacturers to make smartphones in India. And taxes are low on manufacturing too. it was in the news gfive is assembling phones in Pakistan and the company expressed desire to manufacture too but Pta did not gave the permission. That shows the level of our interest in manufacturing phones in Pakistan.
The fact is the govt just wants us to stop importing any phone. recently I imported a phone via aliexpress and it was hell to get it from customs. first they dont even tell you that they detained their parcel and you have to go to GPO for that , then later they ask you to get pta noc. when you give all these docs they put a fixed tax on it and say it is fixed and we cant decrease it. But our neighbor gives free land to mobile manufacturers to make smartphones in India. And taxes are low on manufacturing too. it was in the news gfive is assembling phones in Pakistan and the company expressed desire to manufacture too but Pta did not gave the permission. That shows the level of our interest in manufacturing phones in Pakistan.
I am planning to place an order via aliexpress too, will u please share how much custom duty were charged to you? Also whether duty is fixed or based on market value of product?
At last plz also share how to get NOC from PTA.
thanks, i appreciate if u give me 2 mints of ur time.
Regards,
Ammad Hussain
actually I wont suggest you to do it. But I will say why because many brands are banned in Pakistan like xiaomi and customs confiscates them and never gives you back nor sends back to the sender. pta will say gsma list is ok. dual sim with same imei on both sims dont fall in gsma list so they are banned. check with the seller before importing. secondly customs is different and based on the mood of custom guy. In Lahore they told me its now fixed of nearly 4.1k on any phone (including all taxes and duties). But ask your gpo before importing too. Noc is no problem if your phone is in the list of approved devices. I emailed them detention memo and imei given by post office and they sent the letter via pakistan post urgent mail. it was 2 days process. then I had to submit these docs in post office and they placed duty and two days later post man came and gave me the phone and took the customs charges.
I appreciate your detailed reply.
I also want to import Xiaomi Note 3, and i heard it will officially launch in Pak through Cheezmall.com but don’t know how much time it they thak to lunch. The offical announcement of MI products by cheezmal shows PTA approved their products (my opinion).
1 more thing, whilr surffing through internet i stop by at post whivh says if your supplier send ur product which marked AS GIFT then you may get rid of many taxes, so do you have knowledge about this?
Again thank you so much for your time.
Don’t even think about ordering xiaomi or redmi devices as they are banned. Post office guys in Pakistan open each and every parcel. If they found out phone they will write down imei. You might try to hide manufacture name from PTA but they can know just by putting imei in their system.And the customs won’t even tell you that they have detained your parcel. You might have to call them to know. And don’t even think of using dhl as they will charge you hefty amount on the detention in per day. Gift on parcel don’t work now except in some cases on order of quite low value goods.
Opss thats scary hahah.
Well i got a masages from your 1 of supplier from aliexpress, so they said they will declaired your cellphon AS MP3 PLAYER, so will it help or it has an dead end as well?
No, it only works in other countries. Here they open each and every parcel. There is no x-ray.Even I thought asking them this might work but nothing worked they still opened.
Lol with any doubt i believe you, because i know the system is very creepy here in Pakistan.
well now i am considering Infinix zero 3 to buy locally. i hope i made a good decision :)
but nice to talking with you, i appreciate for your time :)
it is great for the price and comes with warranty.
Here they even don’t allow academic books sometimes and ask for customs or you have to visit GPO. what else you expect then?
Cheezmall has been trying to get noc for a long time but PTA has banned xiaomi ,redmi phones. And some guy even wrote here that it is banned by ministry of interior. You know it is Pakistan and here things work slowly. Expect years for the govt to lift ban on mi.