Mobile phones: Recommendations for import tabled before cabinet, Senate body told

Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi Monday said that recommendation for allowing duty free import of mobile phones under Baggage Rules would be tabled before the federal cabinet.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, the FBR chairman said that Baggage Rules was misused in the past, compelling the government to withdraw the facility, adding duty/taxes are applicable on import of every mobile handset.

The parliamentary panel which met with Rubina Khalid in the chair dismissed the FBR's view for withdrawing the facility and stated that instead of blocking loopholes in the system and improving check and balance, the Board took away the facility which has annoyed international passengers, especially overseas Pakistanis, which is hurting every segment of the society including students and other individuals.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) confronted the FBR on taxes on mobile phone import, saying it is affecting IT sector's growth negatively as well as the digital agenda of the government. The secretary MoITT pleaded before the committee that the duty on mobile import under the Baggage Rules should be withdrawn.

The senators from the government benches also opposed the government's decision of imposing duty on import of even a single mobile phone handset. The committee recommended for suspending an order of the FBR and allowing one duty-free mobile phone under the Baggage Rules.

The committee was of the view that well-off people can afford any price of phones and taxes levied on them but a larger part of population who are using phones for multiple purposes cannot afford it.

The FBR gave briefing on reasons for withdrawal of customs duty exemption on the imported phone per calendar year under the personal Baggage Rules.

The member FBR informed the committee that the duty free allowance on import of mobile phone brought by international passengers was withdrawn vide amending SRO 689 (I) 2019 dated 29-6-2019. The said SRO was made effective from 1-7-2019. The reasons for withdrawal of duty free allowance were that the facility was being misused. Data of international arriving passengers was being stolen and the passport numbers and flight data were being used to enter data details in the mobile device registration software to claim exemption under the Baggage Rules.

He further said that expensive mobile devices were mostly being registered by using international passengers' data. Furthermore, the government desired that there should be uniformity in application of duty/taxes whether brought into Pakistan by passengers or locally procured and, therefore, the exemption was withdrawn to avoid this anomaly, he added.

Pakistan Telecommuni-cation Authority (PTA) advised that more than 0.6 million handsets were imported under the Baggage Rules and most of them were of high end and expensive and it was reported that the facility was being misused. He further said that taxes were reviewed and reduced for commercial and baggage import. He further said that more than 10 million mobile phone handsets were imported during 2018-19 and the government collected around Rs28.8 billion taxes. However, during the first four months of the current fiscal year, around 7.6 million phones were imported and the government collected Rs15.1 billion under the head of duties and taxes, indicating that imports increased.

Senators Faisal Javed and Shahzad Waseem said that mobile phones are not only for call but also for businesses.

While concluding the agenda item 'withdrawal of customs duty exemption on one imported phone per calendar year under personal Baggage Rules,' it observed that the withdrawal is affecting the middle and lower classes and the majority of the members voted in favour of allowing import of one mobile handset in personal baggage and recommended the same to the FBR to reconsider the decision. The committee also discussed the matter of filming and uploading videos of child abuse on dark-web with reference to a recent case reported from Rawat, Rawalpindi, and was given a briefing by the Rawalpindi police.

The committee was told by SSP Muhammad Faisal that the convicted pedophile Sohail Ayaz is a 46-year-old chartered accountant who has previously worked and traveled in nine countries and was also tried and convicted in the United Kingdom and Italy.

One case against him was registered by Punjab Police on November 12 and two on November 14. The committee was told that he targeted children from ages 8-15 and he has admitted having raped 30 children. He said that after the news reports ran on media, more complainants came up to register their cases against him.

The committee was told that the police department is working on the case meticulously. The committee appreciated the swift investigation of the police but at the same time expressed surprise as to how this man went away with everything despite getting deported to Pakistan twice. The committee directed the concerned authorities to obtain if any travel advice accompanied his travel history when he was deported.

The committee also expressed surprise at how this person was employed twice by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and sought information on whose recommendation it was done.

The committee expressed concern as to why the use of dark web was termed to be non-existent a few months back when asked by the committee and now clear evidence has been obtained that dark web and production and uploading of pornographic content was being done in all these cases reported in Pakistan. The committee also called for a proactive role by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in this investigation.

The committee also recommended expediting work on signing of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty for cyber crimes so that in all such cases Pakistan is not denied of information from other countries. The committee also expressed serious reservations over not framing of rules for Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. The committee observed that there is a dire need to revisit the cyber crime law with the objective to further improve and constituted a sub-committee to revisit it.

The meeting was attended among others by senators including Kalsoom Parveen, Shehzad Waseem, Faisal Javed Khan, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Abdur Rehman Malik, Sana Jamali, Fida Muhammad, Hasil Bizenjo, chairman FBR, secretary IT&T, SSP Rawalpindi, director Cyber Crimes FIA and other officials.