The Federal Board of Revenue has approved the establishment of a National Faceless Centre (NFC) in Islamabad, introducing a centralised system intended to reduce direct interaction between taxpayers and tax officials during audits and assessments.
The decision was taken by the FBR’s Board in Council, headed by the FBR chairperson, at its meeting on Friday. The reform forms part of Pakistan’s New Tax Operating Model, which received in-principle government approval in June.
Under the new arrangement, taxpayers selected for audit will no longer have their cases handled from beginning to end by a particular officer. Instead, cases will be chosen through a computerised, risk-based system and automatically assigned to officials who may be based anywhere in the country.
Neither side will know or choose the other: taxpayers will not know the identity of the officer handling their case, while officers will have no control over which cases are assigned to them.
The process will also divide responsibility among three officials. One officer will conduct the audit, another will carry out the assessment, and a third will review the work for quality before an order is issued.
Communication will largely move online, with notices, responses and hearings conducted electronically through the FBR’s IRIS system. Where physical verification or recovery is legally required, a separate field team will undertake that work.
The NFC, which derives its legal authority from the Finance Act, 2026, will be headed by an Inland Revenue chief commissioner. Dedicated wings will handle faceless audits, assessments, quality control and field operations, while a Programme Management Unit has already been created to supervise implementation.
FBR said the objective was to reduce individual discretion, curb opportunities for corruption and make tax administration more consistent.
“The purpose of the reform is same rules for every taxpayer, decisions based on data rather than personal judgement, and an end to the face to face contact that has long been a source of complaints,” the FBR said.
The board added that it expects the new system to make tax proceedings “faster, fairer and more transparent for taxpayers across Pakistan.”