KARACHI: Diamond sets and a drone light show at a near-million-dollar wedding have become evidence for Pakistan’s tax authorities under a new “Lifestyle Monitoring Cell” tasked with scanning social media for lavish spenders, officials said.
A team of 40 investigators from the country’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started scouring Instagram, TikTok and YouTube posts this week, to match influencers, celebrities, realtors and businesspeople with disproportionate filings.
“It’s open-source – their Instagram accounts are a public declaration,” one senior FBR official said, adding tax evasion cases can be opened up in a matter of hours. The FBR did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The monitoring cell has been formed to address Pakistan’s chronic inability to meet revenue collection targets, and to help meet tougher goals set in this year’s International Monetary Fund-backed budget.
The country has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in Asia, a chronic weakness that has forced it into nearly two dozen IMF programs. Less than 2 percent of the country pays its income tax.
