He took to Twitter to respond to one of his followers who complained about a ban on expatriates to bring mobile phones to Pakistan.

“So you people government have imposed a ban on overseas Pakistanis to bring mobile phone,” said the minister’s follower on Twitter in response to his earlier tweet in which he said about Rs1 billion had been donated by overseas Pakistanis for dams since July, this year.

Mr Chaudhry said the overseas Pakistanis can bring a cell phone to Pakistan but tax has been imposed on additional phones.

He said the country is importing $2 billion worth of cell phones, adding that if tax would not be levied on them, how the country would do without taxes.

The minister said there is almost no tax on phones costing less than $60 and 38 per cent tax is charged on expensive phones. What appropriate taxation than this could be, he asked and added tax culture would have to be adopted.