More than 11,000 non-filers’ SIM cards have been disabled nationwide so far in an effort to encourage tax compliance and tax culture, a Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) official stated on Thursday.

The tax collection body’s spokeswoman issued a statement stating that 11,252 SIMs had been blocked as of May 22 in accordance with the Income Tax General Order.

“The FBR is dedicated to advancing tax culture and compliance.”

One day prior, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) declared that, in compliance with the directions of the tax collection authority, over 9,000 SIMs belonging to non-filers had been disabled nationwide.

In a meeting earlier this week, the spokesperson claimed that the FBR had informed the telecom firms of the plan to ban SIMs in an effort to reduce tax fraud and increase revenue production in the face of bleak economic indicators.

He had said, “The government’s decision should be implemented in any case because the parliament made the decision.”

According to sources, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has disassociated itself from the issue of SIM blocking in the interim.

The authorities maintained that it lacked the power to prevent the SIMs from being used.

A spokesman for the FBR said earlier that two telecom companies had barred an additional 3,500 SIM cards that belonged to the non-filers on Tuesday.

He added, “Those who file tax returns will have their SIMs unblocked right away.”

Government order to restrict SIMs is still in force: IHC

The government’s decision to block a non-filer’s SIM was still in effect because the court’s injunction did not address blocking non-filers’ SIMs, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) noted on May 17 while considering a case involving the orders for blocking SIMs of non-filers.

In a case against the government over its decision to block SIM cards, the telecom companies sought a stay of action, and the court granted it.

In a different appeal, the federal government requested the lifting of the stay order governing the legal actions taken against the mobile network carriers.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had made it clear throughout the hearing that the injunction was not intended to stop the SIMs; rather, it was intended to protect the petitioner. Thus, he had stated, the federal government’s decision remained in force.

It makes sense that economic changes be the federal government’s main priority. The top justice had said, “This step might have been taken in the context of economic reforms.”

In addition, the court promised to move quickly and postponed the case until June.

Following extensive discussions among the involved parties, the FBR declared earlier this month that telecom providers have consented to start manually blocking SIMs in small batches until their systems are ready to handle this task automatically.

The tax collecting agency had stated that it had notified the telecom operators of the first batch of 5,000 non-filers and that additional batches will be forwarded to telcos every day.

Prior to this, the decision was made to restrict the SIMs of 500,000 people who were required to file an income tax return for the tax year 2023 but were not listed as active taxpayers.

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