ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $246.472 million in the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, which is a negative 18.93 percent compared to $304.029 million during the same period of the previous fiscal year 2023-24. Growth was recorded.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion during FY 2023-24, compared to $570.071 million during FY 2022-23.
In rupee terms, the country imported mobile handsets worth Rs 68.612 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, registering a negative growth of 22.86 percent as against Rs 88.945 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 29.32% on a month-on-month (mom) basis in September 2024 and reached $79.360 million in August 2024. 102.629 million dollars compared to the imports of).
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports witnessed a negative growth of 17.62% compared to USD 124.576 million in September 2023.
The total telecom imports in the country during July-September 2024 stood at $374.410 million and recorded a negative growth of 6.17% as compared to $399.048 million during July-September 2023.
In September 2024, total telecom imports on MOM basis increased by 28.92% and stood at $153.144 million as compared to imports of $118.787 million in August 2024. On a year-on-year basis, overall telecom imports saw a negative growth of 3.53 percent compared to $157 million in September. 2023.
Local manufacturing/assembling plants produced/assembled 20.44 million mobile handsets during the first eight months (January-August) of calendar year 2024, as against 1.1 million commercially imported.
Official data showed that 1.49 million mobile handsets were produced locally in August while 0.1 million were commercially imported.
The 20.44 million locally manufactured/assembled mobile phone handsets include 7.71 million 2G and 12.73 million smartphones.
Also, according to PTA data, 62 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 38 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
