ISLAMABAD: The local manufacturing/ assembling plants manufactured/ assembled 17.34 million mobile handsets during the first half (January-June) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.84 million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/assembled 4.26 million mobile handsets in June compared to 0.08 million imported commercially.
The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 13.08 million mobile handsets during the first five months (January-May) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.76 million imported commercially. The locally manufactured/assembled 17.34 million mobile phone handsets included 6.19 million 2G and 11.15 million smartphones.
Besides, as per the PTA data, 61 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 39 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
The country imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24, registering growth of 233 per cent when compared to $570.071 million during the fiscal year 2022-23.
In rupee term, the country imported mobile phones of Rs535.690 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24 and registered 291.45 percent growth when compared to Rs136.847 billion during 2022-23.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 76.77 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in June 2024 and stood at $278.574 million compared to imports of $157.592 million in May 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Mobile phone imports registered 419.90 percent growth on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis in June 2024 when compared to $53.582 million in June 2023.
The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $2.366 billion during 2023-24 and registered 147.36 percent growth compared to $956.696 million during 2022-23.
On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a growth of 232 percent and stood at $320.094 million in June 2024 compared to $96.415 million in June 2023. On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 51.28 percent growth in June 2024 compared to $211.586 million during May 2024.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024