LAHORE, Nov 23: The import of cellular mobile handsets has registered a decline of 33 per cent this year as compared to the last year.

According to a PTA’s 2008 report, the government wanted to discourage import of cellphone handsets and for the purpose imposed a duty of Rs500 per piece. However, import of telecom equipment has increased by 31 per cent. The PTA observed that competitive environment had compelled all operators to import machinery and equipment to expand their infrastructure.

This year the telecom sector contributed Rs111 billion to the national exchequer. Last year, it was Rs100 billion.

“The rise is mainly attributed to General Sales Tax (GST), which has increased from Rs36 billion in 2006-07 to Rs44 billion in 2007-08, an increase of 22 per cent,” the report says.

Activation tax is another area where the government is collecting huge amount annually. The amount has increased by about 11 per cent and stood at Rs19.6 billion as compared to Rs19.2 billion last year. The report says the cellular mobile sector invested over US$2.3 billion, which is 11 per cent lower than that of the corresponding year.

“One of the main reasons for the decline could be that the operators have already covered the urban areas and are not investing much in rural areas, which are less lucrative from business point of view.”

The subscriber base of cellular mobile has reached 88.05 million this year with a growth of 40 per cent as compared to 82 per cent last year. All companies together this year added more than 25 million subscribers to their networks. Telenor added 7.4 million, Mobilink 5.7 million, Warid 4.8 million, Ufone 4 million. China Mobile (CMPak) whose growth was negative last year but this year it added 2.9 million customers. Cellular mobile penetration in Pakistan reached 54.7 per cent at the end of 2008 which is 15.3 per cent higher than the last year.

The report says the cellular revenue during 2007-08 was Rs182,080 million, fixed line Rs88,577 million and VAS Rs7,800 million. In 2006-07, cellular revenue was Rs133,131 million, fixed line Rs86,580 million and VAS Rs15,901 million.

During the last five years, the operators had invested over US$8.4 billion in the country. During 2007-08, they invested US$2.3 billion which is 12 per cent lower than the previous year. This year, Mobilink topped in investment with US$919 million, Telenor US$565 million, CMPak US$200 million, Warid US$480 million and Ufone US$232 million.

During the period under review, a total 11,088 complaints about unsolicited SMSs were received. They were sent to the operators concerned for action.

Pakistan is the first country in South Asia to implement the Mobile Number Portability. So far about 356,190 subscribers have availed the facility.

The report says that PTA received 103,535 complaints against fixed line operators mainly against PTCL. The complaints were about the telephone faults particularly in Karachi.

“Internal conflicts and strikes by lower grade employees caused serious hurdles to overcome such complaints by PTCL. New complaints were other major areas of concern where PTA received a number of complaints from consumers against the company. Non-availability of infrastructure remained impediment for new connections by PTCL.” “Complaints about quality of service against CMPak and Mobilink decreased whereas plaints against all other operators recorded an increase,” the report says.