Raza Kazmi
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a clarification on the news aired by a leading news channel regarding use of pirated software by FBR for its systems. FBR has clarified that IT services for Federal and Provincial tax authorities such as FBR, SRB, PRA etc. are being provided by PRAL which also includes maintaining the data centers.
In the data centers there are numerous software products which are being used to perform different functions such as cyber security, virtualization, firewall, etc. Key companies whose products are being utilized include Oracle, Microsoft, VMware, Kaspersky etc.
FBR has clarified that the licensed versions of these softwares have been procured. FBR has added that the original license of the product remains intact, if the support to the software expires. However, at times support for these services may not get renewed in a timely fashion due to unavoidable circumstances.
FBR has clarified that in year 2019, issue of VMware licensing was raised by US Government, which was addressed by procuring the requisite licenses after following relevant procedures as laid down in PPRA rules. For over a year no such issue regarding VMware has cropped up, FBR added.
Meanwhile, earlier the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) also issued a clarification on the messages circulating in emails and social media regarding access of FBR on banking transactions. FBR has clarified that there is no linkage or access to banking transactions at any level with the banks or financial institutions.
Similarly, there is no fingerprint authentication mechanism available with FBR.The tax profile data of FBR has only offline bank account numbers which are not linked with banks or financial institutions. Therefore, there is absolutely no risk of any access to transaction banking at any level. FBR has termed Messages being circulated in emails and social media as fake and baseless.
