The Federal Board of Revenue has ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and telecom operators to block 506,671 mobile phone SIMs of non-filers as the government takes steps to increase tax collection to meet its growing expenditures.
The Income Tax General Order was issued to disable the mobile phone SIMs in respect of persons “who are not appearing on active taxpayer list but are liable to file the Income Tax Retum for Tax Year 2023 under the provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001”.
The mobile SIMs of tax evaders “will remain blocked until restored by FBR or the Inland Revenue commissioner having jurisdiction of the person,” the FBR said in a statement issued on Monday.
Reports said the FBR identified two million non-filers, but mobile service providing companies requested the tax authority that they could not afford to block such a large number of SIMs. It was decided that 500,000 mobile phone SIMs would be blocked.
“Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and all telecom operators are required to ensure the compliance of this ITGO [Income Tax General Order] with immediate effect. The compliance report in this regard is to be furnished to FBR on 15th of May, 2024,” it said.
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Pakistan has signed an agreement with McKinsey and Company to help Pakistan with end-to-end digitisation of the tax authority, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said at a panel discussion on ‘Opening Doors with Fintech’ during the special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh last week.
“It is indeed a big challenge. We have Rs10 trillion cash in circulation in the country at the moment, if you compare it to our annual revenue budget, it’s about Rs9.4 trillion. So almost half of the economy is in that undocumented [informal sector] sector,” Aurangzeb said.
