The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a clarification about the news aired by a leading news channel regarding the use of pirated software for its systems.

It explained that IT services for the federal and provincial tax authorities such as itself, the SRB, the PRA, etc. are being provided by the PRAL which also includes maintaining the data centers. There are numerous software products in the data centers that are being used for different functions such as cyber security, virtualization, firewall, etc. The key companies whose products are being utilized include Oracle, Microsoft, VMware, Kaspersky, etc.

The FBR stated that the licensed versions of the software have been procured and added that the original license of the product remains intact if the software support expires. However, at times, the renewal of the support for these services may be delayed due to unavoidable circumstances.

It also said that the issue of VMware licensing was raised by the US Government in 2019, and was addressed by procuring the requisite licenses after following the relevant procedures laid down in the PPRA rules. It added that no such issue regarding VMware has surfaced for over a year.

Source: Pro Pakistani