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By Trend

The legal import of cellphones in Iran has witnessed a twofold rise, according to the recent statistics released by the Customs Administration of Iran.

According to the report, in the first eight months of the current fiscal year (since March 21), 1.742 million cellphones were imported, a twofold rise compared to the same period last year.

The value of the cellphones was $235.4 million, the report further mentions.

This is while based on reports released in November, only 3 percent of cellphones on sale in Iranian shops are legal.

The November report said that of all cellphones in the Iranian market, only 10 percent were legal, that is, their tariffs were paid at the custom house.

Also, it is said that of the legal phones, 70 percent are sold online. That leaves a meager 3 percent to be sold at shops.

GFK (Growth from Knowledge, a market research and user experience research group) recently reported that in the summer of this year, about 630,000 cellphones were sold in Iran each month. Accordingly, only about 63,000 of them were legal.

Of this summer’s sales, Samsung claimed the greatest share (51 percent), followed by Apple (30 percent), LG (10 percent), Huawei (8 percent), Sony (3 percent), HTC (2 percent), and others (2 percent).

Iran recently launched a long-awaited national scheme to curb the huge and growing market of smuggled cellphones.

Under the scheme, cellphone users in the country need to register their devices with the country’s telecommunications user database.

Meanwhile, Iran Customs Administration has imposed a 5-percent customs duty on the imports of cellphones. The importers of cellphones also need to pay a 9-percent value added tax (VAT).

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