ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported US$414.801 million worth of mobile phones in the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2022-23, registering a negative growth of 67.35 percent compared to US$1.270 billion in the same period of the previous year.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data shows that mobile phone imports registered a month-on-month (MoM) growth of 28.12 percent, amounting to US$51.960 million in January 2023, compared to US$72.291 million in December 2022.
Imports of mobile phones recorded a negative growth of 71.10 percent year-on-year (YoY) in January 2023, compared to US$179.765 million in the same month last year.
Total telecom imports into the country for the reporting period of the current fiscal year 2022-23 was US$644.127 million, registering a negative growth of 61.01 percent compared to US$1.652 billion in the same period last fiscal year.
Negative growth of 66.73 percent YoY: H1 mobile phone import is $362.862 million
However, on a year-on-year basis, total telecom imports recorded a negative growth of 65.75 percent, amounting to US$78.337 million compared to US$228.712 million in January 2022. On a MoM basis, total telecom imports recorded growth of in January 2023 28.79 percent compared to $110.165 million in December 2022.
Imports of other equipment amounted to US$229.326 million in July-January 2022-23, registering a negative growth of 39.90 percent compared to US$381.603 million in the same period last fiscal year.
On an annual basis, other devices remained at $26.377 million in January 2023, registering negative growth of 46.11 percent compared to $48.947 million in January 2022 and negative growth of 30.36 percent on a MoM basis in comparison to $37.874 million in December 2022.
Local manufacturing plants produced/assembled 21.94 million mobile phones in calendar year 2022 compared to 24.66 million in 2021, ie a decrease attributed to problems with imports due to restrictions on opening letters of credit (LCs).
Local manufacturing plants manufactured/assembled 21.94 million mobile phones in calendar year 2022 – compared to 1.53 million commercially imported mobile phones, according to the PTA.
Local manufacturing plants produced 2.24 million mobile phones in December 2022. Commercial mobile phone imports were 10.26 million in 2021, compared to 24.51 million in 2020.
The locally manufactured/assembled 21.94 million mobile phones included 13.15 million 2G and 8.79 million smartphones. Also, according to PTA data, 56 percent of mobile devices are smartphones and 44 percent are 2G in the Pakistani network.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
