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Travellers are Allowed to Bring Duty-Free only One smartphone in a Year to Pakistan

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Travellers are Allowed to Bring Duty-Free only One smartphone in a Year to Pakistan

Express Tribune reporting that Mr Hammad Azhar, Minister of State for Revenue,  has announced that those travelling to Pakistan will be allowed to bring in only one cellphone per year free of customs duty as per the personal baggage rules.


Mobile phones worth Rs82 million come through formal channels and taxes were paid but phones worth Rs2.5 billion come through informal channels every year.

While a maximum of five smartphones can be brought under the new regulations in a year. However, customs duty will have to be paid on the extra four handsets to require service in Pakistan beyond 30 days.

“The cabinet has decided that mobile phones sold after 1st December 2018 that are not customs duty paid (i.e. smuggled) will be deactivated by PTA after a lapse of 30 days,” he tweeted.

Phones currently in use or activated before December 1 will not be affected or require any registration.

In another tweet, he said that “The cabinet has also approved the relaxation in policies regarding the commercial import of new and used mobile phones,” adding that the ban on commercial import of used phones has also been lifted if the phone models conform to PTA regulations and duties and taxes have been paid on them.


Regarding purchasing a new phone or carry any phone he tweeted some basic instructions, “If you are purchasing a new phone or carry any phone that you wish to install a SIM in and activate after 1st December 2018, make sure to send its IMEI number to 8484 to know about its legal status. The IMEI number can be found the mobile phone’s box or by dialling *#06# on its screen.”

The Federal Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry had announced on Friday that the government will roll out a new Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) to block the smuggled phones after December 31.

Courtesy The Express Tribune

See Also: PTA Launches System to Block Stolen, Smuggled Phones



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Naeem Javid

Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani is working as Deputy Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com), All Pak Notifications (allpaknotifications.com), Essayspedia, etc & their YouTube Channels). He is an Environmentalist, Blogger, YouTuber, Developer & Vlogger.

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