Mobile phones: Jul-Mar imports soar 181.26pc to $1.301bn YoY

ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $1.301 billion during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering growth of 181.26 percent when compared to $462.700 million during the same period of last fiscal year.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports declined by 4.87 per cent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in March 2024 and stood at $153.051 million compared to imports of $160.90 million in February 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Mobile phone imports registered 930.92 per cent growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in March 2024 when compared to $14.846 million in March 2023.

The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $1.623 billion during July-March 2023-24 and registered 117.90 per cent growth compared to $744.971 million during the same period of the last fiscal year. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a growth of 422.58 per cent and stood at $189.042 million in March 2024 compared to $36.175 million in March 2023.

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

On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 1.13 per cent negative growth in March 2024 compared to $191.201 million during February 2024.

The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 6.1 million mobile handsets during the first two months (January-February) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.3 million imported commercially.

Official data revealed that local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 3.83 million mobile handsets during February compared to 0.06 million imported commercially.

Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 6.1 million mobile phones handsets included 2.78 million 2G and 3.35 million smartphones. Besides, as per the PTA’s data, 60 per cent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 40 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.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024