Nokia loses the most in Pakistan

[Mudassar]

Nokia is the preferred choice for the grey channel today in Pakistan.
After the government imposed taxes and duties on the handsets the
industry is again doing the same what was the scene in early 2000.
Individual dealers and wholesalers are bringing in-demand mobile phone
through their own channels. Price difference is the basic reason which
has given options to retailers and wholesalers to start importing the
phones illegally.

According to one of the wholesalers, things are in our favor now; we
are making money that is what we are here for. If we buy from the
company we can hardly save Rs. 25 on a handset. From this amount, what
benefit we will pass on to the retailer. But our personal import
provides us an option to earn more than Rs. 500 on a single handset
and we also pass on the healthy commission to retailer.

For example Nokia 1650, which is available by United Mobile (Nokia
Distributor) for Rs. 4,700, can be purchased for Rs. 3,700 in the
market. Dealers are no more interested in buying handsets from
original distributor; instead they have started to get phones from
Dubai through their own channels. Warranty is not a big issue, we are
giving our own warranty to customers and they are happy as far as they
are getting the services. One of the Nokia distributors has not placed
any order to the company for the last 2 months due to imbalanced
market situations. Nokia legal handset import has come down to some 2
– 3 hundred thousands set per month from a figure of 7-8 hundred
thousands per months few months back.

If situation remains the same, it will be a big blow for Nokia and its
efforts to promote genuine handsets in Pakistan. Nokia has already
open Customer Care Centers in Lahore and Karachi and wishes to open
many more in different cities but these centers will not accept
handsets which are smuggled. Since the grey percentage is going bigger
with each passing day, these centers are likely to receive lesser
warranty claims.

Source: http://www.apnatime.com

[Sameer Bokhari]

this what not something unforeseen . as i said earlier about the Rs 250 additional duty on handsets..."since the govt has almost minimal or no control over the illegal trade channels the policy in a nuthshell is to discourage legal imports and encourage smuggled goods, with no stop to the flight of capital in sight.! ."