High-priced illegal mobile handsets of many international brands have flooded the city markets, which are already dominated by low-priced illegal sets, depriving the government of huge revenue income. Shops located in the city’s different areas like Bashundhara Shopping Mall, Dhaka Stadium Market, Motaleb Plaza and Eastern Plaza are selling handsets of brands like Apple, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Sony etc without warranty.
Salespersons at different shops, while talking to New Age last week, said most of such sets entered the Bangladesh market through ‘Luggage Party.’
‘The people who supply these handsets go abroad and bring the sets in their personal luggage to evade tax,’ said a salesperson at Shaheen Telecom at Eastern Plaza in the city.
He said most of such handsets did not have clearance from the telecom regulator or customs.
Another shopkeeper at Brothers Electronics at Bashundhara City Shopping Mall said most of the high-priced handsets came through illegal channel as international brands like Apple, HTC or Blackberry did not have distribution network in Bangladesh.
Some shopkeepers, however, said they bought handsets from the importers who bring the handsets in legal way.
When asked why they do not provide warranty of the handsets if those are legal, a shopkeeper at Al Ehsan Store of Eastern Plaza said they avoided giving warranty as those sets needed to be sent to Singapore or Taiwan for servicing.
‘If we give warranty, then we have to send the sets to the countries from where those are bought when they need servicing. It takes a huge time and most customers do not want to wait for long. So we don’t provide warranty,’ he said.
Samsung in a letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission last month had said the company in a survey found that government lost revenue of more than Tk 4 crore in every month for illegal handsets.
The Samsung collected data from Bashundhara City Shopping Mall and Eastern Plaza for the month of June on its Galaxy S5 where it found that that government lost revenue of Tk 16.60 lakh for the single item.
‘We sold 1,200 products at the price of Tk 60,000 each whereas in the grey market 350 units were sold at Tk 44,900 each. As the government duty on S5 was Tk 4,743 each, it lost revenue of Tk 16.60 lakh in one month for the single item,’ said the Samsung letter.
Mohammad Abu Naser, chief executive officer of Alohaishoppe, one of the three authorised resellers of Apple Inc in Bangladesh, told New Age that most of the iPhone sets in the country were illegal.
‘Recently only 150 iPhone sets were bought in legal channel through a foreign Apple distributor and those are the only legal iPhone sets in the country,’ he said.
Naser said those phone sets which were brought in legal way, cost at Tk 74,000 each including tax whereas the same handsets were selling at Tk 52,000 by bringing in illegal way.
‘So such availability of illegal sets is creating a vulnerable business case for us,’ he said.
The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate in the last week of August seized 409 high-priced handsets worth Tk 1.5 crore from two showrooms of Gadgets N Gear at Gulshan and Banani.
Among the seized handsets there were different brands like Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Blackberry and Motorola.
BTRC officials said most of the illegal handsets did not have unique IMIE (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers, unique 15-digit numbers assigned to all cellular devices.
IMIE number can be used to block a mobile phone from being used by another person or phone company if it has been lost or stolen.
‘As those handsets contain no IMIE numbers, or false ones, the law enforcing agencies cannot trace those,’ a BTRC official told New Age on Saturday.
He said there were some shops where they had technology to change the original IMIE number through software.
According to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association data, in the financial year 2001-02, around 95 per cent of the handsets were imported illegally, but it has reduced to 4 per cent in the FY14.
BMPIA leaders at a news conference in June had said the government move to increase tax on mobile handsets would increase the availability of illegal handset in the market.
The government raised VAT on mobile handset from 10 per cent to 15 per cent in the national budget for the FY15.
The BMPIA data said the import of handset increased to 2.01 crore in the FY14 from 6.22 lakh in the FY05.
The BTRC in April drafted a directive for import of mobile phone handset through type-based approval process instead of existing shipment-based process.
Under the new system, the BTRC will approve a type of handset with some specific technical parameters and service quality assurance and notify customs and also publish the detailed information on the web site.
After a certain type of handsets got approval, then all eligible importers can import the handset by showing the type approval number, said the officials.
-With New Age input
