ISLAMABAD, September 25 — The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established a National Faceless Centre (NFC) in Islamabad, introducing a new system that will eliminate direct interaction between taxpayers and tax officers during audits and assessments.
The decision was taken by the Board-in-Council on Friday as part of reforms aimed at making tax proceedings more transparent, standardised and data-driven.
Under the existing system, taxpayers whose returns were selected for audit generally dealt with a designated officer at a particular tax office, often involving face-to-face interaction.
The National Faceless Centre will change that process by using a computerised, risk-based system to select cases for audit rather than leaving the decision to individual officers.
Once selected, a case will be assigned automatically to an officer who could be based anywhere in the country.
According to the FBR, 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 new framework will also divide each case among three separate functions to prevent a single officer from controlling the process from beginning to end.
One officer will conduct the audit, another will carry out the assessment and a third will review the quality of the work before any decision is issued.
All notices, responses and hearings will be conducted electronically through the FBR’s IRIS system, further reducing the need for taxpayers to visit tax offices or interact directly with officials.
Where physical verification or tax recovery is required under the law, a separate field team will carry out those functions.
The National Faceless Centre derives its legal authority from the Finance Act 2026 and will be headed by a Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue.
Separate wings will handle faceless audits, faceless assessments, quality control and field operations.
The FBR has also established a Programme Management Unit to oversee implementation of the new system.
According to the tax authority, the reform is designed to ensure that the same rules are applied to taxpayers across the country, while decisions are made on the basis of data rather than personal interaction.
The FBR expects the National Faceless Centre to make audits and assessments faster, fairer and more transparent while addressing longstanding complaints linked to face-to-face interaction between taxpayers and tax officials.