ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported 63% more mobiles in 2019 as compared to 2018, according to a report .
Around 28.02 million mobile devices were imported through legal channels in 2019, while 17.2 million were imported in 2018, the report said.
In 2020, 32.83 million devices have so far been imported.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has blocked the IMEI of 175,000 devices which were reported stolen through the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS).
It identified and blocked 24.3 million fake or replica mobile devices and 657,645 IMEIs, which were cloned or duplicated.
At least 29 assembly facilities have been set up because of a successful implementation of the DIRBS in Pakistan.
Because of this, more than 20 million mobile devices have been manufactured since 2019 with over 1.5 million 4G smartphones.
DIRBS implementation has been a catalyst for local mobile devices manufacturing, providing a level-playing field to manufacturers.
It has also unleashed the potential to place Pakistan on the map of global mobile devices exporters.
The Federal Board of Revenue managed to collect Rs90 billion in customs duty during January 2019 to November 2020 on formal imports because of this system.
This is Rs68 billion more than the Rs22 billion customs duty it collected in 2018. It is a growth of 309%.
DIRBS has enabled Rs9 billion in revenue collection under individual category from January 15, 2019 to December 3, 2020.
Before DIRBS implementation, this was an untapped area and no revenue was being collected.
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