Govt losing revenue on smuggled phones

H.D.H Senewiratne

The government is losing a massive amount of revenue due to smuggling of mobile phones into the country on a large scale. Therefore, local mobile companies need to struggle with such smuggled sub standard products, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Metropolitan Telecom Services Roshan Tissera said.

“We have no problem with local mobile companies, but the main issue we have encountered are with smuggled mobile phones that has slipped into the local market, Tissera told the Daily News Business at the launch of their latest Sony mobile phone Xperia Z, latest flagship smart phone.

He said that more than three million phones are being sold for an year, while the total revenue was Rs 10 billion due to the industry which was experiencing a rapid growth for the last few years. Apart from that, Sri Lanka was now on par with other developed countries in adopting new technology, Tissera said.

“With the entering of smuggled mobile phones, local customers sometimes tend to purchase fake/duplicate products rather than the original mobile phones due to its attraction,” he said.

The Xperia Z has been powered by a Snapdragon S4 pro quad Processor which runs on Android’s latest operating system, which technology enable high quality photography and video, even during low lighting conditions to capture images that are closer to the eye perceives. The phone has all the latest and innovative functions.

"All Sony Xperia mobile phones marketed through the Metropolitan, carry a Sony warranty and Sri Lankan buyers should check that both the Sony warrant sticker and the Metropolitan sticker are on the box," he said.