The Existing Government announced the 6th and the last annual budget of its tenure for Fiscal Year 2018-19 and it was a bit disappointing for telecom companies and Smartphone companies in Pakistan. While the annual budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18 brought some tax cuts for imported smartphones, this year’s budget has brought additional taxes on imported smartphones. The Government has introduced new Taxes on smartphones in Pakistan.
Also Check Out: Top 5 Smartphones in 2018
This year’s budget has introduces additional Import Levy on Imported taxes in Pakistan and since most of the smartphones sold in Pakistan are imported, an increase in the price of smartphones can be expected in Pakistan.
Proposed Rate of Import Levy
The new taxes on Smartphones in Pakistan are categorized into 4 categories and the amount of additional import levy varies with the price of the smartphones. As per official figures, an Import Levy of Rs.1000 is imposed for smartphones that cost between Rs.10000 and Rs.40000.An additional import levy of Rs.3000 has been levied on smartphones that cost anywhere between Rs.40000 and Rs.80000.
Lastly, there’s an additional tax of Rs.5000 imposed on smartphones that cost over Rs.80000 however, no additional tax levy was introduced for smartphones that cost less than Rs.10000 in the Federal Budget FY 2018-19.
Also Check Out: Top 5 Budget Smartphones in 2018
Growing Imports of Smartphones in Pakistan
Notably, there was a significant increase in the number and value of smartphones imported into Pakistan over the last year. Reportedly, smartphones worth $500 million were imported into Pakistan in the last 8 months of Fiscal Year 2017-18 and the Government of Pakistan expects to generate a decent amount of Tax revenue with the imposition if new taxes on smartphones in Pakistan.
Even though the prices of smartphones would get marginally higher, we do not expect the imports of mobiles phones into Pakistan to fall as the demand for mobile phones continues to rise throughout the world including Pakistan.
