Pakistan Customs collected Rs54 billion on the import of mobile devices through Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBs) in the past year, which is 145 per cent higher over the preceding year.
According to a report by Dawn, data released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) states the government’s withdrawal of the facility of bringing duty-free mobile handsets under the baggage rules from abroad.
FBR’s data shows that travellers brought as many as 1,389,707 mobile handsets into the country during FY20 under baggage and registered it with DIRBs.
As a result, the Pakistan customs raised more than Rs5.8bn in the last year from expatriates and travellers on import of mobile phones under baggage.
The report states that 17 companies are now manufacturing mobile phones in the country, while a few foreign companies are also planning to invest in Pakistan’s mobile manufacturing industry.
At the same time, there is a clear policy for mobile phones import commercially. Under the commercial imports, as many as 19.80m handsets were imported during the period FY20 at a total value of Rs209.316bn with the FBR collecting Rs39.414bn revenue on it.
