Pakistan assembles 13.8m mobile phones in 5MCY24

June 21, 2024 (MLN): The local mobile assembly and manufacturers have jointly produced 13.8 million mobile phones during the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year (January-May 2024), recent data published by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) showed.

In addition to local output, the commercial imports of mobile phones made by the country were just a marginal 0.75m units.

A breakup of the data further details that out of the total 13.8m devices produced, 8.1m were smartphones while the remaining 4.98m were 2G devices.

Brand-wise, Infinix took the lead in production by manufacturing 1.46m units during Jan-Apr 2024.

The second and third rank was held by Itel and VGO TEL with an output of 1.29m and 1.14m during the review period.

It is crucial to note that production has been on a declining trend since 2022 due to economic depression in the country and rising interest rates which acted as a constraint for the local industry.

However, a greater drop was also noticed in the commercial import section, reducing from 24.66m in 2021 to just 1.58m in 2023.

This means that the country is largely dependent on domestic sources to fulfill local demand.

This decline is attributed to the import restrictions imposed by the central bank to curb the gap between export and import and reduce the outflow of foreign currency.

With the expanding reach of internet services, the threshold of smartphone devices on the Pakistan network has increased to 61%, compared to 59% in 2023 and 56% in 2022.

Conversely, the use of 2G devices on the local network has reduced to 39%, in contrast to 41% in 2023 and 44% in 2022.

The recently announced budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY25) has set a standard rate of 18% on mobile phones, while the ones valued at more than $500 will remain chargeable at the existing rate of 25%.

Moreover, the government has proposed to enhance the withholding tax rate from 15% to 75% on the use of mobile phones for persons whose names are appearing in the income tax general order for non-filing of returns even after issuance of notice.

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