ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $143.889 million in the first two months (July-August) of current fiscal year 2024-25, registering a negative growth of 19.82 per cent when compared to $179.453 million during the same period of last fiscal year 2023-24.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24, compared to $570.071 million during the fiscal year 2022-23.
In rupee term, the country imported mobile handset of worth Rs40.069 billion during the first two months of current fiscal year and registered negative growth of 22.73 per cent when compared to Rs51.853 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 23.14 per cent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in August 2024 and stood at $79.406 million compared to imports of $64.483 million in July 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, mobile phones imports witnessed negative growth of 28.68 percent when compared to $111.339 million in August 2023.
The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $221.725 million during July-August 2024 and registered 7.73 per cent negative growth when compared to $240.293 million during July-August 2023.
Overall telecom imports increased by 16.36 per cent on MoM basis in August 2024 and stood at $119.247 million compared to imports of $102.478 million in July 2024. On YoY basis, overall telecom imports witnessed negative growth of 20.34 per cent when compared to $149.704 million in August 2023.
The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 18.95 million mobile handsets during the first seven months (January-July) of the calendar year 2024 compared to one million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/ assembled 1.61 million mobile handsets in July compared to 0.16 million imported commercially.
The locally manufactured/assembled 18.95 million mobile phone handsets included 6.85 million 2G and 12.1 million smartphones. Besides, as per the PTA data, 62 per cent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 38 per cent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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