Pakistan’s mobile phone imports have skyrocketed during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year (FY) 2023-24, registering a staggering 181.26% increase compared to the same period last year. According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the import value reached $1.301 billion.
However, there were some fluctuations on a month-to-month basis. Mobile phone imports in March 2024 saw a slight decline of 4.87% compared to February 2024, reaching $153.051 million. Despite this dip, year-on-year growth for March 2024 remained impressive at a massive 930.92% increase compared to March 2023.
This surge in mobile phone imports is reflected in the overall telecom import figures for the country. During July-March 2023-24, telecom imports reached $1.623 billion, marking a significant 117.90% growth year-on-year compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year.
Local mobile phone manufacturing, however, paints a different picture. While official data reveals that local plants assembled 6.1 million handsets in the first two months of 2024 (January-February) compared to just 0.3 million imported commercially, there was a decline of around 4% compared to local production in calendar year 2023. This decrease is attributed to import restrictions on mobile phone accessories, which disrupted the manufacturing process. Interestingly, despite these restrictions, commercial imports of mobile handsets actually increased during this period.
The breakdown of locally manufactured phones reveals a growing preference for smartphones. Out of the 6.1 million handsets assembled locally, 2.78 million were 2G feature phones, while 3.35 million were smartphones. This aligns with data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which indicates that 60% of mobile devices currently in use on Pakistani networks are smartphones.
