ISLAMABAD: The local manufacturing/ assembling plants manufactured/ assembled 10.85 million mobile handsets during the first four months (January-April) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.65 million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/ assembled 10.85 million mobile phone handsets included 4.38 million 2G and 6.47 million smartphones.
Besides, as per the PTA data, 61 per cent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 39 per cent 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.
Local manufacturing plants manufactured/ assembled 21.28 million mobile handsets during calendar year 2023 compared to 21.94 million during the same period of 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. However, commercial imports increased from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 21.28 million mobile phones handsets included 13 million 2G and 8.28 million smartphones.
The country imported mobile phones worth $1.462 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering growth of 209.07 per cent when compared to $473.287 million during the same period of last fiscal year.
In rupee term, the country imported mobile phones of Rs414.276 billion during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year 2023-24 and registered 279.52 per cent growth when compared to Rs109.158 billion during the same period of last year.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 5.44 per cent 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 Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Mobile phone imports registered 1,424.42 per cent 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 per cent growth compared to $77.359 million during the same period of the last fiscal year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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