ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has worked out a new plan to collect tax from the non-filers as the government aims at expanding the tax net base in the country.
Reports said FBR has decided to deduct amount from the mobile phone balance in wake of withholding tax. It has decided to impose 90 percent tax instead of previous 2.5% on mobile balance by prepaid and post-paid customers, who are non-filers.
It means the telecom companies will deduct Rs90 out of Rs100 balance and pay it to the tax authority till the non-filers submit their returns.
Earlier this week, FBR issued lists of more than 500,000 non-filers and directed the PTA and telecos to block the SIMs of them. .
Reports said the companies have blocked SIMs of 11,500 non-filers while more will be blocked in coming days.
FBR has set May 15 as deadline for the telecom companies to block the SIMs of all non-filers.
FBR earlier identified millions of potential taxpayers who do not pay taxes and issued notices to them. Out of these, over half million individuals were selected for SIM blockade based on criteria related to taxable income declarations in previous years and non-filing for tax year 2023.