The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has forwarded a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet seeking incentives for smart phones assembly leading to manufacturing in the country.

Official sources revealed that the ministry had proposed major rebates on smart phones exports as well as reduction in taxes on manufacturing and assembling.

The ministry added that encouraging this sector would contribute to the GDP, import bill would be reduced, besides creating new job opportunities as well as promote industrialization in the country.

The summary seeks incentives for local manufacturing/assembling of mobile devices, which will expectedly shift the focus from import of mobiles in completely built units (CBU) to semi-knocked down and completely knocked down (CKD) condition.

Duty on CBU imports would be enhanced, thus making local assembly/manufacturing feasible vis-à-vis imports of mobile devices in CBU conditions.

The consensuses in this regard were reached during a high-level meeting chaired by Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, federal secretary for IT and Telecom, which was attended by various stakeholders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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