Mobile phone import rises by 677 per

ISLAMABAD: ‘The imports of mobile phone rose by 6.77 percent in the first eight months (July- February) of current fiscal year (2015-16) as compared to same period of last year.The mobile phone imports increased to 497.192 million during the period July February (2015-16) from 465.649 million during the period July January (2014-15).According to latest data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the imports however fell on year on year basis by 12.63 percent from 73.156 million in February 2015 to 63.915 million in February 2016.Likewise on month on month basis the mobile import posted a growth of 9.8 percent as it was recorded at 58.213 million in January 2016.The overall telecom import during first eight months of current year fell by 3.84 percent from 97.193 million last year to 96.362 million during the period of current fiscal year.On year on year and month on month basis the telecom import increased from 115.443 million in February 2015 and 104.761 million in January 2016 to 125.995 million in February 2016 thus showing an increase of 9.14 percent and 20.27 percent respectively.Meanwhile according to a senior official at Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication the manufacturing and assembling of mobile handset units at a local level is expected to start from April this year in the country.