Pakistan's tax authority FBR still lacks millions of declarations for 2022.
To get tax evaders to pay, they have resorted to a new trick: blocking hundreds of thousands of SIM cards belonging to individuals who have not filed a declaration.
No one pays their taxes voluntarily, so we had to find new ways to get people to do it, says Bakhtiar Muhammad at FBR.
More than 210,000 mobile phone cards have been blocked, and the measure appears to be having the desired effect – 62,000 cards have been unblocked after their owners paid their taxes.
In Pakistan, SIM cards are registered with the equivalent of a personal identification number, which made it easier for the authorities to track down tax evaders, despite the protests from telephone companies.
Access to phones is a fundamental human right and necessary for many to get information, says a spokesperson for one of the country's largest telecom companies.
Only 5.2 million of Pakistan's 240 million inhabitants filed a declaration for 2022.
