Price of smartphones is set to go up as the budget for 2019-2020 proposes to increase the customs duty by more than double.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, who unveiled a Tk 5.23 trillion budget in the House on Thursday (Jun 13), proposes to increase the customs duty of smartphones to 25 percent from the existing 10 percent.

“As smart phone is used by affluent people, I propose to increase customs duty of smart phone to 25 percent,” reads his budget speech.

However, the customs duty on feature phones will remain unchanged at 10 percent as it’s used by ‘relatively poor people’.

Kamal also proposed reducing the duty on mobile phone charger connector pin and SIM slot ejector pin to 10 percent from 25 percent.

In his speech, the finance minister indicated that the move to hike customs duty on smartphone import will benefit the local industry.

“One of the main elements of the ICT sector is cellular phone which is enjoying concessionary duty benefits on import of some raw materials and parts. Some (5-6) local manufacturers have already started manufacturing and assembling cell phones in Bangladesh,” he said.

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