Pakistan telecom operators block 3,500 SIMs of non-filers after-tax body order
Pakistan Telecom operators on Saturday blocked mobile phone SIMs of over 3,500 non-filers of the 5000 cards they had promised to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) they would in line with its Income Tax General Order (ITGO) — a move aimed at compelling 506,671 individuals to place on record their returns for 2023, The Express Tribune reported.
The FBR also sent messages to about 5,000 individuals, warning them that their mobile phone SIMs would be blocked if they did not file their returns. It has further sought details of the blocked SIMs from the telecom operators.
As already notified, the board has sent the second batch of 5,000 non-filers to the telecom companies, which had agreed to initiate the manual blocking process of the SIMs in small batches until their systems were fully equipped to automate it.
The third batch will be dispatched on Sunday (today).
Sources said an automated system would be introduced to verify the SIMs to be blocked by the telecom companies, The Express Tribune reported.
The telecom companies have submitted a preliminary compliance report to FBR during its meeting on Saturday on sending messages and blocking the SIMs of the first batch of non-filers.
Despite the FBR issuing the ITGO, the telecom companies resisted the move by penning a letter to the IT ministry and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in which they wrote that they were mandated to provide uninterrupted services to their customers, except in
