Mobile phone tax in Pakistan can now be paid in monthly instalments. Miss one payment, and the phone is blocked.

The mobile phone tax in Pakistan on imported handsets no longer has to be paid in one go. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued an order letting individuals spread the sales tax on a phone they bring in from abroad over monthly instalments, paid through the PTA registration system. The tax itself is unchanged, the deadline is the end of the financial year, and missing a single payment gets the phone blocked.

The short version

• FBR’s Customs General Order No. 06 of 2026 lets buyers pay sales tax on imported phones in equal monthly instalments.
• The number of instalments equals the months left in the financial year, so a phone registered in October can be paid off over nine months.
• Every instalment must be cleared by 30 June. A missed payment blocks the phone and makes the full balance due at once.
• The tax amount does not fall. What changes is cash flow for buyers, and possibly demand for imported handsets.

What happened

On Friday the FBR issued CGO No. 06 of 2026, amending CGO No. 01 of 2019, which governs the registration of mobile phones through the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS), Business Recorder reported. The instalment option covers international travellers, local applicants and phones imported through post or courier. Applicants choose it when they apply on DIRBS.

The tax is divided into equal monthly payments. The number of payments equals the months remaining in the financial year, counting the month of application. The first instalment is paid through a Payment Slip ID (PSID) generated at the time of application, and a new PSID is issued for each later month, due on the same date each month. The final instalment must be paid before 30 June, and phones imported in June must be fully paid within that month. Buyers may pay early.

The order puts into practice a change first announced in September, when the FBR amended the Ninth Schedule of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, to allow instalments on imported phones, according to Daily Pakistan. Duty-free and tax-free phone imports for travellers ended in July 2019.

Why it matters

For many buyers, the mobile phone tax in Pakistan on an imported handset has been a large single payment on top of the phone’s price, and that upfront cost is a barrier to registering a device. Spreading it out lowers the cash needed on day one without changing what the government collects in the year. It sits alongside wider efforts to bring more transactions into the tax net, a theme in the IMF’s push on tax exemptions and under-taxed sectors.

The timing rule matters. Because all payments end on 30 June, the instalment option is most generous for phones registered early in the financial year and shrinks month by month. Someone registering in October gets nine months; someone registering in April gets three.

The knock-on effects

First order: lower upfront cost to register a phone

Travellers, people receiving phones by courier and local applicants can register a device by paying the first instalment instead of the full tax. That may bring forward registrations that people had been delaying.

Second order: a new default risk for buyers

The penalty is strict. A buyer who misses an instalment becomes a defaulter, the phone is treated as unregistered and blocked, and the whole outstanding tax becomes payable at once with no further instalment option. For resellers, a second-hand phone with unpaid instalments could carry a hidden risk unless its payment status is checked.

Third order: competition with local assembly and digital demand

If easier payments lift demand for imported handsets, locally assembled phones face more competition at the top of the market. More registered smartphones would also support data use as operators roll out 5G across 24 cities. Both effects are possibilities, not forecasts; the FBR has not published expected take-up.

Who could benefit

• Travellers and overseas Pakistanis bringing phones home, who can spread the tax.
• Importers by post or courier, who are covered by the same option.
• Mobile operators, if more devices are registered and connected.

Who may face pressure

• Buyers who miss a payment, who lose use of the phone and owe the full balance at once.
• Second-hand phone traders, who may need to check instalment status before buying devices.
• Local phone assemblers, if imported handsets become easier to afford.

What to watch

• When the instalment option goes live on the PTA’s DIRBS portal, and how applicants select it.
• Any FBR or PTA data on how many phones are registered under instalments.
• 30 June 2027: the deadline for all instalments on phones registered this financial year.
• Other FBR steps on enforcement, such as its production monitoring drive.

Sources

• Business Recorder, Imported cell phones: FBR allows ST in instalments, 24 Oct 2026
• Daily Pakistan, FBR allows sales tax payment in installments on imported mobile phones, 16 Sep 2026
• Daily Times, FBR announces instalment facility for imported phone tax, 16 Sep 2026

This is analysis, not investment advice. Figures are as of 24 Oct 2026.