In rupee terms, mobile phone imports amounted to Rs. 535.690 billion in FY24, reflecting a 291.45 percent increase from Rs. 136.847 billion in FY23.
On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, Pakistan’s mobile phone imports surged by 76.77 percent in June 2024, reaching $278.574 million compared to $157.592 million in May 2024, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Year-on-year (YoY) growth in mobile phone imports was 419.90 percent in June 2024, compared to $53.582 million in June 2023.
The total telecom imports for the country were $2.366 billion during FY24, marking a 147.36 percent increase compared to $956.696 million in FY23.
Year-on-year, overall telecom imports grew by 232 percent, reaching $320.094 million in June 2024 compared to $96.415 million in June 2023. On a MoM basis, telecom imports grew by 51.28 percent in June 2024, up from $211.586 million in May 2024.
Local manufacturing and assembling plants produced 13.08 million mobile handsets in the first five months of 2024 (January-May), compared to 0.76 million units imported commercially.
Official data indicates that 2.23 million mobile handsets were manufactured/assembled locally in May 2024, while commercial imports were 0.11 million units.
The 13.08 million locally manufactured/assembled mobile phones comprised 4.98 million 2G phones and 8.1 million smartphones. According to PTA data, 61 percent of mobile devices on the Pakistan network are smartphones, while 39 percent are 2G phones.
Local manufacturing and assembling of mobile handsets declined by about four percent in 2023 due to import restrictions related to opening Letters of Credit (LCs) for mobile phone accessories.
Despite these restrictions, commercial imports of mobile handsets increased during this period. Official data shows that local manufacturing plants produced 21.28 million mobile handsets in 2023, compared to 21.94 million in 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. Commercial imports rose from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. The 21.28 million locally manufactured/assembled mobile handsets included 13 million 2G phones and 8.28 million smartphones.