Smartphones to be pricier

The price of imported smartphones will increase while feature phones' cost will be the same under the proposed budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year.

The government has planned to raise the customs duty on imported smartphones to 25 per cent from the existing 10 per cent.

"As smartphones are used by affluent people, I propose to increase customs duty of smartphones to 25 per cent," said finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his national budget speech for the 2019-20 fiscal on Thursday.

However, the customs duty of feature phones will remain unchanged at 10 per cent, considering that it is used by relatively poor people, he added.

The move may help domestic manufacturers of cell phones as the finance minister said, "Some (5-6) local manufacturers have already started manufacturing and assembling cell phones in Bangladesh."