Pakistan implements new measures to penalise tax evaders and ensure that mobile phone providers disconnect them.
Already having ordered the disconnection of half a million of its own residents who were allegedly not paying their fair share, doxxed them.
Pakistan has laid up plans to confiscate tax evaders’ cell phones as a form of punishment…
The nation has already taken the unprecedented step of revealing the numbers of SIM cards that over 506,000 of its people are suspected of using, ordering the SIMs to be deactivated until their tax affairs are in order, and identifying the citizens that local authorities believe have not submitted taxes.
The public can access that list of citizens in an 8,737-page PDF file on the internet, which was published in April 2024. The Register has decided not to provide a link to it. Although the government of Pakistan might take pleasure in doxxing its people, we should not participate in this.
Read more: Out of 11,252 users with blocked SIMs, 7,167 file tax returns to get SIMs unblocked
Pakistan’s Telecommunication Authority and all local carriers are required to make sure that the SIMs on the list are blocked, as per the order included in the list.
Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, the country’s finance minister, went even farther in hs budget speech when he unveiled the nation’s budget, threatening carriers that fail to block the SIMs of alleged “non-filers” of tax information with fines of one hundred million rupees ($358,000).
A clause pertaining to the usage of mobile phones was also included in the budget, raising the withholding tax from 15 percent to 75 percent for individuals who have not organised their financial affairs.
The budget includes a further programme that aims to improve revenue collection by increasing the digitization of government activities. The Federal Board of Revenue in Pakistan acknowledged that some of its software might not be licenced or supported, and readers may recall that in 2021 The Register reported on disruptions at the agency brought on by a disastrous migration operation.
To enable the collection of additional sales tax, a wider deployment of point-of-sale technologies also received mentions.
Pakistan’s government is driven to take action against those who fail to register their taxes in order to augment its earnings. The country owes a great deal to the International Monetary Fund, which has been pushing for reforms that it says will stabilise the economy and promote growth.