The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has unveiled a new process for commercial importers to regularize unregistered mobile phones with SIM/IMEI capabilities, shedding light on the registration procedure mandated by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Under the amendments introduced by FBR in its Customs General Order (CGO) No. 01 of 2019 through CGO 1 of 2024, commercial importers must adhere to PTA’s guidelines for obtaining a Certificate of Clearance (COC) for already type-approved devices.
According to FBR, commercial importers must follow PTA’s prescribed procedure, accessible via the online portal dirbs.pta.gov.pk/drs, where applicants are required to submit all necessary documentation and meet technical standards compliance criteria.
Once applications are submitted through DIRBS, the system conducts thorough checks on IMEI numbers to ensure they correspond to approved models and are not flagged as stolen, duplicated, or cloned. Approved applications are then forwarded to FBR WeBOC for further processing.
Applicants are instructed to complete the FBR/Customs process through their WeBOC account. Upon FBR approval, the DIRBS system generates a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) for the application.
The registration process for a commercial DIRBS account involves several steps, including signing up via the provided link, selecting ‘Commercial’ from the drop-down menu, and entering the required credentials. Activation of the account is facilitated by sending an email to commercialnoc@pta.gov.pk for verification.
Applicants must upload all necessary documents and a CSV format list of IMEI numbers. For inquiries, PTA has designated the email address for communication with concerned parties.
