ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $1.148 billion during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering a growth of 156.43 percent when compared to $447.854 million during the same period of last fiscal year.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports declined by 17.46 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in February 2024 and stood at $160.899 million compared to imports of $194.928 million in January 2024, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Mobile phone imports registered 386.78 percent growth on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis in February 2024 when compared to $33.054 million in February 2023.

The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $1.434 billion during July-February 2023-24 and registered 102.44 percent growth compared to $708.796 million during the same period of the last fiscal year. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a growth of 195.81 percent and stood at $191.504 million in February 2024 compared to $64.740 million in February 2023.

On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 17.71 percent negative growth in February 2024 compared to $232.709 million during January 2024. The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 2.27 million mobile handsets during the first month (January) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.24 million imported commercially.

Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 2.27 million mobile phone handsets included 0.72 million 2G and 1.55 million smartphones. Besides, as per PTA data, 60 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 40 percent 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 phone accessories.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024