ISLAMABAD – Mobile phone handsets prices will increase, as the federalgovernment has announced a new kind of levy of up to Rs 5000 on importingmobile phone handsets.
The new levy is going to be applied to mobile phones depending on theirimport value after duties and taxes are added to the total amount. Thedetails are as follows:
Mobile Phone ValueLevy Amount Less than Rs. 10,000None Between Rs 10,000and Rs. 40,000Rs. 1000 Between Rs 40,000 and Rs. 80,000Rs. 3000 Over Rs.80,000Rs. 5000
According to the Finance bill, a levy of Regulatory Duty (RD) @ Rs.175/seton completely knocked down (CKD)/ semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits of mobilephone has been proposed. The RD on completely knocked down (CKD)/semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits of mobile phone was Rs 200 per set which hasnow been reduced to Rs 175 per set, reflecting a benefit of Rs 25 per set.
According to experts, this may discourage digitization and encourage thesmuggling of mobile phones. The move came as an effort to curtail growingimports and generate additional revenue.
Industry experts said that imposing levy on mobile phone sets will hurt theinformation technology sector at large. At the same time, this will alsoencourage smuggling of handsets as the incentive for illicit trade will beincreased with the levy.
Mobile phone imports witnessed a phenomenal growth of 14.99 percent in thefirst nine months (July-March) of 2017-18 as they stood at $603.075 millioncompared to $524.442 million during the same period of 2016-17 (July-March).
Mobile phone imports in March 2018 stood at $77.042 million and increasedby 18.41 percent compared to the $65.062 million imports in March 2017, andincreased by 10.41 percent compared to $69.779 million in February 2018.