Key Takeaways
- The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established the National Faceless Centre in Islamabad.
- The new system aims to reduce official discretion and prevent corruption.
- Cases will be selected by a computerised, risk-based system and handled by anonymous officers.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched the National Faceless Centre in Islamabad, a significant step towards implementing a 'faceless' tax audit and assessment system. This initiative, part of Pakistan’s New Tax Operating Model, was approved in principle by the government in June.
According to an FBR statement, the new system is designed to eliminate direct contact between tax officials and taxpayers, thereby reducing the potential for corruption. The centralised and faceless tax model, similar to those in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, and India, is expected to make tax proceedings faster, fairer, and more transparent.
The decision to establish the National Faceless Centre was taken at the Board in Council, a body headed by the FBR chairperson, during a meeting on Friday. The statement highlighted that the initiative is a major reform, changing how tax audits and assessments are carried out in Pakistan.
Under the new system, a taxpayer whose return is selected for audit will no longer deal with a specific officer in a particular office. Instead, cases will be selected by a computerised, risk-based system. Each case will then be automatically assigned to an officer who may be located anywhere in the country. The taxpayer will not know who the officer is, and the officer will have no say in which case comes to them.
Every case will pass through three separate hands: one officer will conduct the audit, a second will make the assessment, and a third will review the work for quality before any order is issued. This ensures that no single officer controls a taxpayer’s case from start to finish.
All notices, replies, and hearings will take place electronically through FBR’s IRIS system. Where the law requires a physical verification or recovery, it will be carried out by a separate field team. The NFC draws its legal authority from the Finance Act, 2026.
The National Faceless Centre will be headed by an Inland Revenue chief commissioner, with dedicated wings for faceless audit, faceless assessment, quality control, and field operations. A Programme Management Unit has already been set up to oversee its rollout.
FBR expects the NFC to make tax proceedings faster, fairer, and more transparent for taxpayers across Pakistan. The purpose of the reform is to ensure the 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.
