The federal government has decided to give incentives to the mobile industry to increase the exports of mobile phones. At the request of the Ministry of IT and Telecom, the Ministry of Industries and Production has started work on the new mobile phone policy.
Sources told ProPakistani that the Engineering Development Board, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industries and Production, is working on a new policy named “Mobile Devices and Allied Equipment”. The new policy will include measures for local manufacturing and export of mobile devices as well as allied equipment.
Sources said that the issue of giving incentives to the mobile industry to increase the exports of locally manufactured mobile phones was discussed in the SIFC. SIFC directed the Ministry of IT and Telecom, Ministry of Industry and Production, and Ministry of Commerce to provide incentives to the industry under the mobile phone policy.
Sources of the Ministry of Industry and Production say that the mobile devices manufacturing policy issued three years ago (2020-23) is going to expire. Under the new policy, the ministry will analyze the existing and proposed tariff structure for locally manufactured mobile devices.
The Ministry of Industries and Production will make the selection of items and define the tariff structure for allied equipment like POS machines, tablets, etc for the promotion of the ecosystem.
Local manufacturing of tablets, point-of-sale machines, mobile chargers, Bluetooth hands-free, motherboards, plastic components, displays, and batteries will be part of the new policy, sources said. Local manufacturing of these imported equipment will increase employment opportunities in Pakistan and save foreign exchange.
According to the sources, the new mobile policy will devise a mechanism on the source of funding, collection, and disbursement mechanism for R&D allowance on the export of mobile phones. a 3 % to 8 % R&D allowance has been proposed for the industry on the export of mobile phones. In the new policy, suggestions have also been sought for ease of doing business and reducing the regulatory burden on the industry.
Officials of the Engineering Development Board (EDB) say that the work on the new mobile phone policy has been started. The CEO EDB held a consultation session with mobile manufacturers on November 10 on this new policy. In this session, suggestions are sought from the industry.
According to the officials, the Mobile Manufacturers Association will hold a meeting with all members and submit a consolidated proposal to the EDB by the end of November. The Engineering Development Board will finalize the policy draft after consultation with other stakeholders and relevant ministries.
