The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) plans to take legal action because more than 500,000 SIM cards linked to tax non-filers have not been blocked as required.
The FBR is concerned about the chaos caused by the failure to block these SIM cards. To address this, the agency is considering imposing an additional 2.5% withholding tax on mobile phone use by non-filers.
Sources at the FBR said that if the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and telecom companies do not block the SIMs of non-filers by May 15, the FBR will file a legal complaint. This complaint will be submitted to the Islamabad High Court against the PTA and telecom companies for not following the rules.
The FBR has started working with its legal team to draft the court petition. At the same time, it is looking at other ways to deal with the issue of unblocked SIM cards. One idea is to charge non-filers an extra 2.5% withholding tax on their mobile phone usage.
Sources also mentioned that non-filers might be charged an additional tax for each mobile recharge or data top-up. These steps aim to encourage tax compliance and bring in more revenue for the government.
Major telecom companies wrote a letter to the Ministry of Information Technology and the PTA. They voiced legal concerns about the FBR’s order to block SIM cards for non-filers. Earlier, the PTA had rejected the FBR’s demand to block over 500,000 SIM cards for non-filers, stating that such an order would not be legally binding and would go against the existing legal framework.
