Yo!
I'm currently studying in Germany and was a bit short on cash after Nexus 5X finally died (RIP) and I found a great deal on a second-hand dual-sim Galaxy S9 on ebay-classifieds for 200 EUR. It had its own European anti-smuggling thing but the only thing that was needed was to make a 5-minute call anywhere with a European operator and it'd get disabled, no biggie.
Now I came to Pakistan for a month and I started getting messages about custom duty and stuff from PTA. But since my stay wasn't that long, I didn't mind. And a friend told me the duty's fixed or something; like over 30k if the phone's USD market value is over $500 or something. WTH, I bought this BECAUSE I was low on money, and there's no way I'm paying for the same price I bought the phone with. I searched around here on PG but the threads are from 2019 so I dunno what's still valid by now.
So my question is, can I safely ignore these messages? I don't care if the phone gets blocked, I can use another cheaper Pakistani backup phone when I come back again. I'm only concerned with my ufone number, since it may have some 2-factor authorization attached to it. I already have an old backup Lenovo phone here, if I put my ufone sim in it, will that cause problems? It was bought in Pakistan and I can use it exclusively with my ufone sim if needed.
Also, I can't open the dirbs website (https://www.dirbs.pta.gov.pk/), is that normal? Can you not access this from Germany since I'm back there now?
Thanks!
I'm currently studying in Germany and was a bit short on cash after Nexus 5X finally died (RIP) and I found a great deal on a second-hand dual-sim Galaxy S9 on ebay-classifieds for 200 EUR. It had its own European anti-smuggling thing but the only thing that was needed was to make a 5-minute call anywhere with a European operator and it'd get disabled, no biggie.
Now I came to Pakistan for a month and I started getting messages about custom duty and stuff from PTA. But since my stay wasn't that long, I didn't mind. And a friend told me the duty's fixed or something; like over 30k if the phone's USD market value is over $500 or something. WTH, I bought this BECAUSE I was low on money, and there's no way I'm paying for the same price I bought the phone with. I searched around here on PG but the threads are from 2019 so I dunno what's still valid by now.
So my question is, can I safely ignore these messages? I don't care if the phone gets blocked, I can use another cheaper Pakistani backup phone when I come back again. I'm only concerned with my ufone number, since it may have some 2-factor authorization attached to it. I already have an old backup Lenovo phone here, if I put my ufone sim in it, will that cause problems? It was bought in Pakistan and I can use it exclusively with my ufone sim if needed.
Also, I can't open the dirbs website (https://www.dirbs.pta.gov.pk/), is that normal? Can you not access this from Germany since I'm back there now?
Thanks!
