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Software piracy reduction accelerates development
Staff Reporter
Islamabad—Business Software Alliance (BSA), Spokesman for East
Mediterranean and Pakistan, Aly Harakeh has expressed the need for
checking software piracy to generate thousands of high paying IT
jobs and for accelerating economic development in the country.
Speaking in a television programme he said the country could create
about 12,000 jobs, contribute $163 million to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) and raise $23 million in additional tax revenue for the
government over the next four years by cutting down its software
piracy rate from 86% to 76%.
The tax revenues from the sale of genuine software programmes and
from the people employed in this sector would help the government in
meeting its funding for socio-economic development, he added. He
pointed out that the country’s IT sector supported 3,250 IT
companies with nearly 57,500 employees and generated $69 million
taxes in the year 2007.
Aly Harakeh said software pirates neither pay sales tax nor income
tax; therefore the government has to charge the productive sector
more to make up for this loss. He said BSA is jointly working with
the governments, businesses, mediaKhalid Butt someone is found
infringing the IPRs.
To a question he said BSA members suffered $143 million loss in the
year 2006 from piracy in Pakistan. Although software piracy has
slightly dropped in the country yet the losses incurred from it have
increased mainly due to growing use of computers at homes,
businesses and educational institutions. Aly Harakeh said as part of
its global piracy reduction efforts, BSA has recently launched the
Legal Software Promotion Campaign in Pakistan to urge computer users
install licensed software on their PCs and networks.
Asked how Pakistan was performing compared to other regional
countries such as China and India, he said the two countries have
taken serious measures to protect IPRs by closing down CDs and DVDs
making plants and tracking down fake products. “They are now
promoting a better environment for foreign companies to come and
establish their businesses there,” he added. BSA has also seen a lot
of improvement in Pakistan in terms of checking piracy through
legislation and improvement in the last five years, yet the piracy
rate in Pakistan still stands at 86%, he added.
Asked to comment how Pakistan could cut its software piracy rate Aly
said, “There are no silver bullets because piracy reduction requires
a great deal of efforts from all the stakeholders.” Highlighting the
benefits of licensed software Aly said, the businesses’ could be
safeguarded against viruses and system crashes, the legal vendors
could market better featured software, the government could earn
more income tax and sales tax, while the investment in the IT sector
could further increase.
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