The country imported mobile phones worth $1.462 billion during the first ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering a growth of 209.07 percent when compared to $473.287 million during the same period of last fiscal year.
In rupee terms, the country imported mobile phones of Rs. 414.276 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year 2023-24 and registered 279.52 percent growth when compared to Rs109.158 billion during the same period of last year.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 5.44 percent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in April 2024 and stood at $161.393 million compared to imports of $153.045 million in March 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Mobile phone imports registered 1424.42 percent growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in April 2024 when compared to $10.587 million in April 2023.
The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $1.834 billion during July-April 2023-24 and registered 135.44 percent growth compared to $77.359 million during the same period of the last fiscal year. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a growth of 515.52 percent and stood at $211.663 million in April 2024 compared to $34.388 million in April 2023.
On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 12.02 percent growth in April 2024 compared to $188.942 million during March 2024.
The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 6.1 million mobile handsets during the first two months (January-February) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.3 million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 3.83 million mobile handsets during February compared to 0.06 million imported commercially.
Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 6.1 million mobile phone handsets included 2.78 million 2G and 3.35 million smartphones. Besides, as per the PTA’s data, 60 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 40 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
Local manufacturing/assembling of mobile handsets declined by around four percent during the calendar year 2023, attributable to issues in imports on account of restricting the opening of letters of credit (LCs) for mobile phones’ accessories. However, despite restrictions, commercial imports of mobile handsets increased during this period, official data revealed.
The minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has stated that 35 mobile manufacturing companies are working in the country, however, only 0.2 million mobile phones were exported.
Can we control this mad race of mobile import before it is too late?
Ffff