Mobile Handsets, Equipment Imports Continue to Decline During August

Government’s move to tax mobile handsets has impacted imports negatively and they fell by 10 percent during August 2015, whereas the equipment for network up-gradation also showed a sharp decline in imports by a whooping 36 percent during the reported month.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said that imports of mobile handsets declined to $60 million (Rs 6.1 billion) in August 2015 as compared with $66.7 million (Rs 6.6 billion) recorded during the same month last year.

Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)-led government, a revenue hungry rule, had introduced a series of taxes on telecom sector including GST on mobile handsets in the current financial year 2015-16. Taxes on mobile phones increased 100 percent to Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,000 from earlier levels of Rs. 150 to Rs. 500.

Importers of different mobile phone sector might had not passed on this tax to customers due to competition but these taxes were collected at imports stage have taken toll on the growing imports of mobile phone with more brands coming into Pakistan.

In Jul-Aug 2015, the overall imports of handsets dropped to 8 percent standing at $105 million (Rs 10.7 billion) compared with previous year’s period in which it stood at $115 million (Rs 11.4 billion).

The imports of mobile handsets may recover their growth after few months due to introduction of various handsets in the local market along with competition among brands but the ongoing growth in smartphone will get curtailed with a margin of at least 8-10% due to new taxes that were introduced this year.

Decline in Imports of Telecom Equipment

Imports of mobile apparatus also showed a drop of 36 percent which has been portrayed as a slow down in activities of mobile phone companies for upgrading their network for introducing Next Generation Technologies in different cities of Pakistan.

PBS number said that imports of mobile apparatus decreased to $55 million (Rs 5.6 billion) in August 2015 from $87 million (Rs 8.7 billion) during August 2014.

PML-N government, which has never left any chance to generate revenues whether from masses or from investors, had earlier increased custom duty on telecom equipment to 10 percent from 5 percent in 2014-15 as it knew that cellular operators were working on bringing in required advancement in their networks for launching new technologies to their customers.

Decline in imports of telecom equipment seem like a reaction of the industry to increased taxes on the sector under various heads

In Jul-Aug 2015, the overall imports of telecom equipment declined significantly by 46 percent to stand at $87.8 million (Rs 8.9 billion) as against values of previous year which stood at $164 million (Rs 16.3 billion).

Demand for network upgradation is huge in the market but decline in imports seem like a reaction of the industry in terms of investments by cellular phone companies mainly because 3G/4G services were taxed by provincial governments at 19.5 percent which should have been reversed as promised but is still hanging like a sword on the head of telecom players.

The imports expense of mobile phone companies have further increased after depreciation of Rupee against Dollar which now stands at 104, hence the present downward trend in imports of infrastructure is likely to persist in coming months.


  • dar at work. Instead of forcing manufacturers to provide hardware warranty to local users so that technical skills could be transfered and giving tax free opportunity to manufactures to produce smartphones in Pakistan our govt has decided it is best to put duty and taxes around 30% so that Pakistani don’t get advantage of worldwide smartphone boom. Look even India has made a goal of smartphone for everyone while in Pakistan there is no govt policy at all.

  • Propakistani should also talk about those handsets which are being smuggled from UAE/USA and EU. Due to 30% custom duty many buyers are comfortable to buy these.


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