ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar Sunday announced that those travelling to Pakistan would be allowed to bring in only one cellphone per year free of Customs duty as per the personal baggage rules.
In a series of tweets, the revenue minister that a maximum of five phones in a year could be brought in under personal baggage rules. “The duty on remaining four will have to be paid if you require service in Pakistan beyond 30 days.”
sFor the purposes of implementation and enforcement of this policy, the Customs electronic automated system had already been integrated with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)’s DIRBS (Device Verification System), he said.
“The IMEI numbers of Customs duty-paid phones is automatically uploaded to PTA’s database,” he added.
The minister of state for revenue announced that the non-Custom duty-paid phone sets bought after December 1 would be deactivated after a lapse of 30 days.
However, he said that the phones activated before the said date would not be affected.
“The cabinet has decided that mobile phones sold after Dec 1, 2018 that are not Custom duty paid (i.e. smuggled) will be deactivated by PTA after a lapse of 30 days. Phones currently in use or activated before Dec 1 will not be affected or require any registration,” he said.
He requested masses to check legal status of the phone sets while purchasing through sending their IMEI numbers to 8484.
“If you are purchasing a new phone or carry any phone that you wish to install a SIM in and activate after Dec 1, 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,” he said.
Hammad Azhar said the federal cabinet had also approved the relaxation in policies regarding commercial import of new and used mobile phones.
“Ban on commercial import of used phones is also lifted if the said phone models conform to PTA regulations and duties and taxes are paid on them,” he said.
Published in Daily Times, November 26th 2018.