Dhaka, Jan. 13 -- The interim government has reduced import duty on mobile phones, a move expected to lower prices of handsets in the domestic market.

The import duty on mobile handsets has been cut to 10 percent from 25 percent, bringing down the combined burden of customs duty, advance tax and VAT on imported phones from 61.80 percent to 43.43 percent.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) expects the change to reduce the price of imported smartphones priced above Tk 30,000 by around Tk 5,500.

In a parallel step, duty on components imported by local mobile phone assemblers has been reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent.

As a result, the prices of locally assembled phones in the same price bracket are likely to fall by about Tk 1,500, a...