The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics PBS, Government of Pakistan has released the data about the imports of smart phones in Pakistan. As per the stats of the PBS, the mobile phones worth $1.535 billion imported July-March (2020-21) as compared to $979.965 million in July-March (2019-20) that shows an increase of 56.74 percent on imports.

During the whole period, overall telecom imports increased by 43.76 percent after increasing from $1.337 billion in 2019-20 to $1.923 billion during the current fiscal year.

On a year-on-year basis (YOY), during March 2021, Pakistan recorded an increase of 95.58% over imports in the same month last year.

PBS data shows that mobile phone imports were recorded at 22 224.502 million during March 2021, compared to 114.786 million during March 2020.

On a monthly basis (MOM), mobile phone imports increased by 27.69% in March 2021, compared to 17 5,175.821 million in February 2021.

Compared to the same month last year, the total telecom imports from Pakistan during March 2021 have increased by 78.28% as compared to the year 2008.

Telecom imports during March 2021 were recorded at 30 20,303.564 million as against 170 170.273 million during March 2020. Based on the MOM, overall telecom imports increased by 27.95% in March 2021, compared to 7 237.257 million in February 2021.

Imports of other goods increased by 8-24% during July-March (2020-21) to 38 387.366 million from 35 357.890 million in the current financial year 2019-20.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), with the help of the PTA, has collected around Rs. 100 billion since the implementation of the DIRBS as mobile devices imports via legal channels increased by around 70 percent.

According to experts in the field, the implementation of the Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) has showed a prominent increase in legal imports of mobile   devices. In addition, it has helped set up more than 33 local assembly plants for mobile devices.