The government has taken a strict step against people who haven’t filed their taxes. They’ve asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and other telecom companies to stop the SIM cards of more than 500,000 non-filers.
According to a statement by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), they’ve used a certain law called Section 114B of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, to make this decision. This law gives them the power to do this. The FBR has issued an order, called the Income Tax General Order (ITGO), to do this.
This order is for those who should be filing taxes for the year 2023 but haven’t. The FBR wants the PTA and all telecom companies to follow this order right away. They’ve said that the SIM cards of these people will stay blocked until the FBR or the Commissioner Inland Revenue in charge of them says otherwise. The FBR wants a report on this by May 15th.
