High-priced mobile handsets of leading international brands brought in illegally have occupied nearly 40 per cent of the total local market of the item, reportedly for duty wall on imports.
Importers said government exchequer is being deprived of around Tk 10 billion in revenue for the informal trade through travel routes.
An official of a law-enforcement agency said apart from the matter of revenue loss, illegal handsets are also risky for the country's law and order as criminals always prefer unauthorised mobile sets.
"New online shops should be brought under tight scrutiny as illegal handsets are randomly traded through those shops," he said about the virtual bazaar in the fast-emerging knowledge economy.
According to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA), annually more than 40 per cent mobile-phone sets enter the country illegally.
Visiting different mobile markets the FE correspondent found the selling of unauthorised cell-phone sets of global brands like Apple, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Sony, Nokia and so without warranty.
The markets having mobile hubs include Bashundhara Shopping Mall, Dhaka Stadium Market, Eastern Plaza, Motaleb Plaza, Shah Ali Plaza, and Baitul View.
Salespersons at different shops said everyday a large number of international-brand mobile-phone sets, laptops and notepads land in the local market through 'luggage party' trade.
They said the branded and non-branded mobile sets which are entering the country through the free flow are selling at lower pieces than that of legal sets.
Ahsan-Ul-Haque, a shopkeeper at Rangdhonu Shopping Mall at Pallabi, said a large number of high-priced international-brand electronic goods, including mobile handsets, come through illegal channels as international brands like Apple, HTC or Blackberry don't have distribution networks in Bangladesh.
"Many local people who supply the illegal electronic goods go abroad and bring the products in their personal luggage to evade revenue," Faisal Alim, vice-president of BMPIA, told the FE.
He assumes that for such illegal trade the government is losing revenue worth some Tk 110 million every month as more than 0.45 million mobile- phone sets enter the country illegally during the period.
The BMPIA data show the import demand for handsets about 20 million. Of this, 12 million sets are imported legally while the rest come through illegal conduits.
Nizam Uddin Jitu, president of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Businessmen Association, said an authorised dealer has to pay a total of 22 per cent tax, including duty and advance income tax.
"But the dishonest traders import the cell-phone sets through illegal channels by evading government tax and duty."
When asked, Commissioner at Chittagong Customs Md Masud Sadiq said, "We release the mobile handsets after many examinations. There is no chance of illegal sets crossing the customs house."
Meanwhile, officials at the state regulator BTRC said they had no data on smuggled phone sets.
BTRC secretary Md Sarowar Alam said, "Besides the lack of data on illegal sets, we have also a lack of efficient manpower to monitor the smuggling of mobile sets."
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