The prices of mobile handsets are likely to increase in the next fiscal year as the government has proposed to impose double import duty on mobile handsets. Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed to increase import duty on mobile handsets while delivering his budget speech at the Jatiya Sangshad on Thursday. The import duty on cellular phones would be 10% in the upcoming fiscal year 2017-18, which was 5% in the previous fiscal year. Rezwanul Haque, general secretary of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association (BMPIA), said: “If the government imposes 10% import duty, then handset prices will increase around 30%.”A total of 80 importers import 30 million handsets which have the market price of Tk8,000 crore. Requesting anonymity, an importer said the illegal import of phones will increase if the government imposes the new import duty.

Source: Dhaka Tribune June 01, 2017 09:56 UTC