Telecom Sector Contributed Over Rs. 163 Billion in Taxes in July-March FY22: Economic Survey

The telecom sector contributed Rs. 163.3 billion to the national exchequer in terms of taxes, regulatory fees, initial and annual license fees, activation tax, and other taxes during July-March, fiscal year 2021-22.

The Economic Advisor’s Wing of the Finance Division revealed in the Economic Survey 2021-22 that telecom sector revenue during July-March fiscal year 2022 recoded at Rs. 423 billion as it has emerged as one of the vibrant sectors of Pakistan’s economy. Increasing revenues, growing investment and enhanced contributions to the national exchequer are hallmarks of the sector for many years now, it said.

From July 2018 to March 2022, the telecom sector has attracted inflows of over $6.1 billion in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) by telecom players in Pakistan. FDI (inflow) in telecom during July-February fiscal year 2022 was $107.9 million.

Local investments made by telecom operators during July-December fiscal year 2021 reached to a significant amount of $822.2 million. The main driver behind this investment is the mobile sector which has invested $605.2 million during the period. In terms of overall investment (FDI and Local) in the telecom sector during July-February fiscal year 2022, inflows crossed $930.1 million.

At the end of February 2022, total teledensity in the country reached 89.5 percent, registering a growth of 3.23 percent during July to February fiscal year 2022. The cellular mobile segment was the main contributor to overall growth in teledensity. By the end of February 2022, the total number of subscriptions (Mobile and Fixed) in Pakistan reached 194.2 million.

Net addition of 6.7 million subscribers has been reported translating into a growth of 3.64 percent during (July-Feb FY2022) which is a healthy sign.

Broadband and Cellular Growth

Broadband subscribers (mobile and fixed) reached 114.3 million at the end of February 2022 as compared to 102.7 million in June 2021, which shows that on average, there have been more than 1.45 million subscriptions added to broadband networks per month from July to February FY2022. More coverage and reduced tariffs will further increase the pace of broadband subscriptions.

The total broadband penetration (fixed and mobile) in Pakistan stood at 52.0 percent in February-2022.

Lastly, data usage by Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) during July-February FY22 (eight months) reached 5,674 petabytes, which is indicating a huge increase for the period in review. In comparison with the fiscal year 2020-21, data usage was 6,855 petabytes in 12 months.



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