A leading telecom company has informed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that it has blocked 3,064 SIM cards of non-filers, doing so under protest due to concerns about potential litigation with the tax department.
In their communication to the FBR, the operator stated, “Since the FBR is enforcing the implementation of the Income Tax General Order (ITGO) ahead of the defined statutory timeline of May 15, 2024, we must express the inherent limitations of our systems, the costs of automation, the potential litigation risks that telecom companies may face, and the burden of undue costs. Therefore, we submit that compliance with the ITGO is being carried out under protest, and we have informed the FBR of these limitations.”
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Last month, the FBR issued an ITGO to disable the mobile phone SIM cards of over 0.5 million individuals who are required to file income tax returns for the Tax Year 2023 but do not appear on the active taxpayer list.
Following some delays, telecom operators agreed on May 10 to start manually blocking the SIM cards in small batches. Last week, it was reported that the FBR established a Joint Working Group (JWG) consisting of tax officials and telecom operators to streamline the SIM blocking process.
