Pakistan Telecom Sector Attracted $127 Million FDI in 11 Months

According to a report released by State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Telecom Sector Attracted $127 Million FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) in 11 Months from July 2014 to to May 15.

Pakistan Telecom Sector Attracted $127 Million FDI in 11 Months from July 2014 to May 2015

According to that report, the overall telecom imports have also increased by 10.37 % as compared to the last year. The mobile phone imports in the country have increased by 15.86% as compared to the previous year while total imports rose from $653.808 million from the previous period earnings of $564.293 million, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

More accurately, the imports of telecom stood at $1.265 billion against the imports of $1.146 billion in July-May 2014-15.

The report describes that telecom sector is more interested in increasing product ranges for consumers ever since the introduction of 3G/4G in Pakistan. The cellular operators are looking to upgrade their systems and networks to facilitate the continued growth of the sector. The report further tells that:

[pull_quote_center]”The performance of PTCL also remained weak during the first half of FY15. Additional cost incurred on voluntary separation sch­eme brought down the operating profits from Rs8.6 billion at end-June 2014 to Rs4.5bn by the end of Dec 31, 2014″[/pull_quote_center]

As it is clear from the SBP’s report that Pakistan Telecom Sector imports are growing very fast but the recent announcement of doubling the taxes on the mobile phone imports could play a negative role in the growth of telecom industry.

A positive step of Punjab Government of withdraw of 19.5 % GST on all types of internet services is appreciable. KPK and Sindh Government are also planning to remove General Sales Tax (GST) on all broadband and data internet services to increase the digital growth of Pakistan. If they succeed to do so then definitely Pakistan will increase digital growth and will also be able to increase more Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in upcoming years.