ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) stated on Friday that the order just prohibited the government from taking any action against the telecom providers; he did not, however, restrict the authorities from disabling the SIM cards of non-filers.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) action was challenged in a petition filed by a mobile operator, and the media said on Tuesday that the IHC had imposed a stay order in response.
The occurrence happened a few days after the FBR and telecom companies decided to restrict non-filers’ SIM cards as part of the government’s attempt to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue production in the face of bleak economic forecasts.
The FBR said earlier this month that telecom companies have agreed to start the manual blockage after extensive discussions among the stakeholders.
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.
