ISLAMABAD: Despite the rise in domestic production, import of mobile phones in the country has seen an increase of 7.63 percent during first eight months of the current tax year 2021-22 compared to the corresponding period of last year.
According to data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the imported country mobile telephones worth $ 1,411.619 million in the period July-February 2021-22 compared to imports of $ 1311.493 million in the period July-February 2020-21, which shows a growth of 7.63 percent.
Meanwhile, on a year-to-year base, import of mobile phones fell by 19.69 percent during the month of February 2022 compared to the same month of last year. The import of cellphones in the country in February 2022 were registered at $ 141.207 million against exports of $ 175.821 million in February 2021.
In a month-on monthly basis, imports of mobile telephones also witnessed decline of 21.45 percent in February 2022, compared to imports of $ 179.765 million in January 2022, according to the data.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, domestic manufacturing plants have produced / assembled 1.53 million smartphone devices in January 2022, compared to 0.14 million legally imported in January 2022.
The net telecom shipments to the country climbed by 15.33 percent during this review period (July-February) 2021-22. It rises from $ 1.619 billion from July to February 2020-21 to $ 1.868 billion from July to February 2021-22.
Total country import invoice in February jumped 28.09% to $ 5.89 billion against $ 4.6 billion in the corresponding month last year.
