Thus far, 230,000 SIMs belonging to individuals who have not filed income tax returns have been stopped by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Every day, telecom carriers receive data from the tax machinery about 5,000 individuals who do not submit taxes. After submitting their income tax returns, 76,636 persons have had their SIM cards for their cell phones returned thus far.
A Joint Working Group (JWG) including telecom providers and tax authorities was established by FBR in May 2024 with the goal of enforcing Income Tax General Order (ITGO) No. 1 of 2024 and streamlining the process of blocking non-filers’ SIM cards. On May 20, major telecom providers began to restrict non-filer SIMs.
