By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will block mobile phone connections of over 500,000 individuals who failed to file their income tax returns for Tax Year 2023, the country’s tax authority said on Tuesday.
The move is part of the country’s efforts to broaden its tax base and tackle evasion, The move aims to tackle Pakistan’s long-standing issue of tax evasion and narrow tax base, which has led to insufficient revenue collection and a high fiscal deficit.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has published the names of non-filers whose SIMs will be blocked within 15 days. The FBR said in December that Pakistan had a “very narrow tax base” of around 5.2 million people in 2022, out of a population of 240 million, and planned to add 1.5 million new taxpayers to the existing base this fiscal year.
However, tax authorities’ exercise to bring new taxpayers into the tax net has failed to achieve the desired results.
On Tuesday, the FBR issued an order to enforce filing of returns by the persons who were not appearing on the active taxpayer list.
“FBR has taken decisive action by issuing an order to disable mobile phone SIMs associated with 506,671 individuals who fall under the aforementioned category,” the revenue authority said in a statement.
“The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and all telecom operators have been instructed to enforce the ITGO with immediate effect, ensuring swift implementation of the order.”
The mobile connections will remain blocked until restored by the FBR or the concerned Inland Revenue Commissioner. Telecom operators must furnish a compliance report to the FBR by May 15.
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