Telcos Have so Far Blocked SIMs of 9,000 Non-Filers 

Telecom operators have so far blocked mobile SIMs of 9,000 non-filers under directives of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). A spokesperson of the FBR said on Wednesday that telecom operators have sped up the process of blocking SIMs. The spokesperson said that FBR is providing new data to telecom companies every day for blocking SIMs. The spokesperson further pointed out that so far FBR has shared data of 30,000 individuals whose SIMs are supposed to be blocked. However, he admitted that it would take some time to block SIMs of all 506,671 persons who do not appear on the active taxpayer list but are liable to file the Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2023. It is pertinent to mention here that initially, telecom operators were reluctant to block SIMs, citing various legal reasons. However, later they agreed to manually block SIMs in small batches. FBR had issued an Income Tax General Order (ITGO) towards the end of April to disable the mobile phone SIMs of over 0.5 million persons who do not appear on the active taxpayer list. At the time, FBR directed telecom companies to submit a compliance report in this regard by May 15.