Officials say diamond suits and drone lighting performances at a nearly million dollar wedding have become evidence of the tax agency under the new “lifestyle monitoring cell”, responsible for scanning for luxury spenders on social media.
A team of 40 investigators from the Federal Revenue Commission (FBR) has started this week’s search for Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube posts to match influencers, celebrities, real estate agents and businessmen with disproportionate documents.
“This is their Instagram account to be a public statement,” an FBR official said, adding that tax evasion cases can be opened within a few hours.
FBR did not respond Reuters Request a comment.
Monitoring units have been set up to address the country’s long-term inability to meet revenue collection targets and to help achieve more difficult goals supported by the IMF this year Budget.
Pakistan is one of Asia’s lowest tax-to-GDP ratios, a chronic weakness that forces the country to participate in nearly twenty-two IMF programs. Less than 2% of the population pays income tax.
According to the blessings of internal documents, the unit was officially established this month ReutersThe task is to “system monitoring, search and analyze data from major social media platforms” and identify people who show wealth but do not register for taxes or declare income that appear to be inconsistent with their spending and assets.
According to the document, the unit will build digital information for sisters, evaluate the money behind their lifestyle and prepare reports that can be used for tax or money laundering investigations.
The document says it will maintain a central database of evidence, including screenshots and timestamps.
Diamonds, drones, DJs and databases
Officials say a wedding under review costs nearly 248 crore rupees ($878,000).
Blessed documents Reuters Shows cost nearly $283,000 on diamond and gold suits, and $124,000 on bridal outfits by leading South Asian designers.
As the drone lights up the sky, guests enter through the corridor of the floral arches and sit down to prepare multi-course dishes prepared by 400 people.
The celebration features top makeup artists, DJs and traditional Qawwali music bands, while international consultants helped choreograph the six-day event, which officials say is the super-travel kid currently spending on the crosshairs.
Officials say the wedding is just one of several cases to be reviewed.
Investigators are also studying videos of luxury cars, high-end real estate travel, and videos of influential and expensive lifestyles.
“People themselves label activity managers, catering providers, jewelers, etc. This makes our job easy,” another official said.
Officials said that despite its recent establishment, the new department has been shortlisted for multiple documents for a more in-depth review.
Past efforts to purge high-income earners have become weak, but officials say new focus on social media offers stronger prospects and faster ways to tag undeclared wealth.
