ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has refused to block the mobile phone SIMs of non-tax return filers on the request of the Federal Bureau of Revenue, it was learnt on Saturday.
The FBR had issued an order to block the SIMs of over 0.6 million non-tax filers and stated that in the next phase the utility connections would also be blocked. However, after receiving the communication, the PTA in a letter informed the FBR that blocking the SIMS was not viable and neither there was a law binding on the authority to take such action.
The PTA also informed the FBR that only about 27 per cent woman used mobile phone SIMs issued in their names as women mostly used SIMs issued their male family members. While rejecting the request of the request, the PTA asked the FBR to adopt some other mechanism to bring the non-filers into the taxation system.
