ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has collected a total of Rs 83 billion in taxes from mobile phone device registrations over the past six years, according to the authority’s latest data.
In the same period, the PTA also blocked a total of 100 million mobile devices, including stolen, lost, and duplicate devices. In the 2024-2025 year alone, the PTA blocked approximately 7.2 million mobile devices, which included 868,000 stolen or missing phones and 2.7 million devices with duplicate or cloned IMEI numbers.
The PTA’s data shows that since 2019, the government has benefited from over Rs 83 billion in taxes collected from mobile phone device registrations. The main goal of this project was to decrease the amount of smuggled and inferior-quality phones entering the country and to improve the nation’s mobile device management system.
The statistics from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) data show that the activation of the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) was the major factor that stopped the import of fake and unapproved mobile phones. Consequently, the mobile market has become more transparent and well-documented, which has resulted in higher government revenues.
More so, the PTA has endeavoured to boost locally made products and decrease the illegal influx of mobile phones into the country under the MDM Regulations 2021. By 2025, it is anticipated that 95% of the mobile phones used in Pakistan will be made locally. Furthermore, it is projected that 68% of the smartphones in use in Pakistan will be locally assembled.
The PTA’s documents also reveal that the DIRBS system has helped establish a secure, transparent, and self-sufficient digital ecosystem in Pakistan. The country is now well-positioned to be a key player in the region’s mobile phone value chain, according to the authority’s statements.
