Fact-check: PTA denies claims of waiving tax on imported mobile phones

A post shared on social media, which has been viewed nearly two million times, alleged that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has waived off the tax it charged on imported mobile phones.

The claim is false.

Claim

On May 22, a social media user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Good news, PTA has ended the tax it charged on mobile phones that are brought into the country from other countries. A notification has also been issued in this regard.”

The post has been viewed over 113,600 times, liked over 2,700 times, and reposted over 500 times to date.

Identical claims were also shared here, here and here.

Fact

Both the PTA and the Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan (FBR) deny that any such decision has been taken as of now.

Malahat Obaid, the spokesperson of PTA, told Geo Fact Check that the online claims were “fake”.

In a written response, she added that in July last year, the then Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had allowed a 120-day tax-free facility to register a mobile phone only for those Pakistanis who are residing abroad. The policy is still in effect.

“No [further] instructions have been issued by the FBR to remove taxes for the registration of taxes,” the statement added.

Geo Fact Check then spoke to Bakhtiar Muhammad, the spokesperson of the FBR, who also denied any such decision.

“There is no such development,” he said, “The tax on imported phones remains the same. There has been no change.”

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