Tech Desk
Sep 22, 2024
Imports of mobile phones in Pakistan have declined even more during the first two months of the current fiscal year 2024-25. As data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics indicates, the country imported $143.889 million worth of imports during July-August 2024 against $179.453 million imported during the same period of FY24.
Imports of mobile phones to Pakistan have shown a highly volatile trend over the past several years. For FY24, import numbers stood at $1.898 billion. For FY23, imports came in at $570.071 million.
Imports to the nation have begun to fall in the first two months of FY25. And the reason attributed to the fall is cited as these government policies nudging local manufacturing into, increasing taxes on imported mobile phones and more demand for handsets that are locally manufactured.
According to the official statistics, local manufacturing/assembling plants have produced 18.95 million mobile handsets from January to July of the calendar year 2024. This also means that only 1 million units have been commercially imported in the period under consideration.
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Local manufacturing comprises 2G and 6.85 million smartphones; local manufacturing is quite likely to grow as government policy and demand for cheaper handsets are high.
Total telecom imports in Pakistan for July-August 2024 stood at $221.725 million, making records lesser than July-August 2023, which was to be at $240.293 million, and in this way decreased by 7.73%.
Telecom imports for August 2024 have reached heights when compared with July 2024 as it's increased by 16.36% and stood as high as $119.247 million against $102.478 million in July 2024.
It would benefit the economy of Pakistan through a decrease in imports of mobile phones and an increase in local manufacturing. Along with reducing the outflow of foreign exchange, it would simultaneously provide maximum employment opportunities to the population and enhance the local industry.
Industry sources said that local production would continue to gain momentum. Pakistan would emerge as a regional mobile manufacturing hub.
