ISLAMABAD: A crucial step for those who haven’t been filing taxes in Pakistan is about to be taken by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). They’re getting serious.
Starting maybe next week, the FBR is gonna start blocking mobile phone SIMs and cutting off utilities like electricity and gas for those who haven’t filed their income tax returns.
This whole thing by the FBR is supposed to happen in January 2024, after the time’s up for responding to notices sent out on December 28–29.
The tax folks are planning to publish a detailed order with names of people who haven’t complied, and that’s gonna lead to cutting off their electricity and gas, and blocking their SIMs across different connections and service providers.
But there’s a tricky part: the FBR’s got to figure out how to deal with non-filers who have electricity bills under family members’ names.
This adds a bit of a headache, as the tax people try to cut off electricity to those who really haven’t filed.
Even with these hurdles, the tax authorities in Pakistan are pretty confident about this move to expand the tax base.
They’re looking to rope in about 1.5 million new filers with this, showing the government’s push for better fiscal responsibility.
