Unauthorized Access of Taxpayers’ Data to Result in Severe Punishments, Imprisonment

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has prescribed severe punishments including imprisonment to tax officers/officials who would copy, access, or interfere with information systems or taxpayers’ data declared as “Critical Infrastructure” without authorization. According to the FBR’s communication to the field formations on Tuesday, the Cabinet Division, vide its memorandum has conveyed the approval of Cabinet to declare FBR’s infrastructure as “Critical Infrastructure” as defined under sub section (x) of section 2 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. In view of the above approval/decision of the Cabinet, FBR declares IT infrastructure including “data centers, applications, and systems” of FBR that host taxpayers data as “Critical Infrastructure” under the PECA Act 2016 as a measure of deterrence of potential offenders who may try to breach FBR systems. The PECA Act 2016 prescribes severe punishments for those who copy, access, or interfere with information systems or data declared as “Critical Infrastructure” in an un-authorized manner. Any damage, leakage, unauthorized access, or misuse of data shall result in legal proceedings against the responsible person(s) under the provisions of PECA 2016, which may lead to imprisonment, a fine, or with both as provided under Chapter-II of the PECA 2016. Accordingly, all relevant authorities/persons are directed to ensure compliance and implement necessary security measures to protect Critical Infrastructure of FBR, the instructions of FBR added.