Nepal has imported 1.229 million smartphone sets worth approximately Rs 19 billion in the last seven months of the current fiscal year 2024/25.
According to data from the Department of Customs, the customs duty collected on mobile phones valued at Rs 18.98 billion during the first seven months of the fiscal year (mid-July to mid-February) amounts to Rs 3.35 billion. The number of imported smartphones is 126,000 higher than during the same period last year, when Nepal imported 1.05 million smartphones worth Rs 17.38 billion. This year’s import value is Rs 1.6 billion higher than the previous year.
Currently, mobile phones priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 dominate the market. The increase in smartphone imports is attributed to a rising number of users in Nepal.
Historical data from the Department of Customs shows that the highest number of mobile phone imports occurred between mid-January and mid-February 2021, with mobile imports valued at Rs 28.38 billion over seven months, marking the highest figure in the last five years. In 2022, Nepal imported mobile phones worth Rs 14.76 billion, while in 2020, the figure stood at Rs 12.60 billion.
In recent years, a decline in the import of basic bar phones and a rise in smartphone imports have led to an increase in total import value, even though the number of imported units has decreased. Five years ago, Nepal imported 2.6 million mobile sets in the seven months from mid-July to mid-February, but their customs value was only Rs 12.60 billion.
