Unbeknownst to me, you have to pay taxes on a mobile telephone purchased out of country. My phone's GSM services stopped working and naturally, one's ability to function also fails as one depends on the mobile contraption so much.
Since I can’t explain it so well, I shall quote myself.
I wrote this on the family WhatsApp chat:
My phone’s acting up. Says Cellular Services not available. Tried restarting. Tried taking SIM in and out. Put Airplane mode on and off. Put my SIM in Kavita's phone. Worked. Put Kavita's SIM in my phone. Did not work. Took the phone to a mobile shop. Turns out mobile phones bought outside need to pay taxes. My phone got blocked. I will have to go to the PTA Office to find out how much taxes I have to pay.
Valiant Haresh wouldn’t believe it:
Does not make sense. PTA cannot block your phone. I think you need to investigate further. Why does it work on Kavita's phone?
Haresh couldn't understand why Kavita's phone wasn't also blocked. But it was used in Pakistan in 2017 before PTA started this policy. I think it's to prevent smuggling of phones and also generate taxes.
PTA's office is on the other side of Islamabad and thankfully, this website came to the rescue: https://propakistani.pk/. It explains how/why PTA blocks phones and how to i) register the mobile phone ii) find out about the tax iii) and apply to pay the tax. The have a useful page: Learn How to Unblock a PTA Blocked Phone.
I didn't have to go to the PTA office in person.
So, I had to visit this PTA page: https://dirbs.pta.gov.pk. I registered my phone temporarily and got a break for 2 months. But, one can’t postpone death and taxes forever.
After 2 months my phone was blocked again. But getting it unblocked was a headache because the PTA website is a mess. I tried to obtain a notice with the taxes I had to pay. The page wouldn't load. The same Login/Password I had used to register my phone in the first place didn't work. I called the Helpline who told me to register a complaint online.
I'm not a very patient complainer. So, after complaining and exaggerating, I agreed to try their advice.
This is the humble complaint I made:
Dear Sir Madame, I am having great difficulty logging in to request registration of my device. I have reset the password SEVERAL times but no luck. What do I do. I have been trying since Friday to get into your website and-or contact you. Your mobile IMEI (863892053919227) is Temporary Registered (paired with mobile number applied during registration) for Overseas PakistanisForeign Nationals. BuySell this mobile device is not allowed till the time it is registered subject to payment
of FBR custom duties. Please check both IMEIs in case of dualdigital sim device. This IMEI is of T-Mobile REVVL V device. Your mobile IMEI 863892053919227 is Temporary Registered and paired with mobile number 03175101661 .Till 2024-03-26. Application Tracking ID is MTY5OTc5NzQ.
CAN I extend the registration period or what is the custom duties Thank you. Regards Farzana
In the end, I received a tax notice of about 11,000 PKR which I promptly paid at the Bank. My phone's Cellular Services were restored almost immediately.
I don’t know what else to ad to tis story of Blocked Phones and Taxes. What great lesson did I learn? Don't evade taxes.
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