On the eve of Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) took down its websites for more than 24 hours out of concern that Indian hackers might launch a hacking attack once more.
According to FBR employees and anyone who attempted to access the three tax machinery web portals on Saturday night and Sunday, these websites were unavailable, which hampered the process of making payments and filing income tax returns.
On the eve of Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day, Iris.fbr.gov.pk, the portal used to file returns, as well as e.fbr.gov.pk and fbr.gov.pk, its key links with taxpayers and the rest of the world, were shut down, according to the officials.
The websites are presently live as of this morning, prior to the start of regular business hours.
Asad Tahir Jappa, the FBR spokesperson, acknowledged that websites were down and said, “This is a standard maintenance endeavor.” He omitted to indicate when the FBR intended to launch these web portals.
Fascinatingly, the FBR shut down its web portal for routine maintenance over ten days ago and duly notified the public through a notification.
“Building further on its ongoing drive for digitalization, the FBR is all set to upgrade its key IRIS system in order to improve its operation, enhance its security, and add a new Graphic User Interface,” according to a statement that it issued on August 5.
“It is to inform that during this upgradation process, the services of IRIS System will be temporarily unavailable from 10 pm on August 6 to 10 am on August 7, 2022. Therefore, the inconvenience is regretted,” according to the statement.
This time, the FBR neglected to inform the public that its services weren’t available.
To read our blog on “The Tax Ombudsman instructs FBR to address any gaps in the POS regime,” click here.
