Jul-Oct mobile phone imports soar 107.91pc to $469.99m YoY

ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $469.992 million during the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering a growth of 107.91 percent when compared to $226.051 million during the same period of last year.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 33.20 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in October 2023 and stood at $165.941 million compared to imports of $124.576 million in September 2023, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Mobile phone imports registered 152.27 percent growth on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis in October 2023 when compared to $65.780 million in October 2022.

The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $606.865 million during July-October 2023 and registered 75.60 percent growth compared to $345.595 million during the same period of last fiscal year.

July mobile phone imports soar 75.59pc to $68.135m YoY

On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a growth of 114.65 percent and stood at $207.789 million in October 2023 compared to $96.805 million in October 2022. On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 30.94 percent growth in October 2023 compared to $158.688 million during September 2023.

Local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 13.02 million mobile handsets during the first nine months (January-September) of 2023 compared to 1.09 million imported commercially.

The local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 2.15 million mobile handsets during September 2023 compared to 0.25 million imported commercially.

Local manufacturing plants manufactured/assembled 21.94 million mobile handsets during the calendar year 2022 compared to 24.66 million in 2021, i.e. registered a decline, attributable to issues in imports on account of restricting the opening of Letters of Credit (LCs).

Around 21.94 million mobile handsets were assembled during the calendar year 2022 compared to 1.53 million commercially imported phones handsets, said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The locally manufactured/assembled 13.02 million mobile phones handsets included 9.01 million 2G and 4.02 million smart phones.

Besides, as per the PTA data, 57 percent of mobile devices are smart phones, and 43 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023