Islamabad: The National Faceless Center (NFC) was established in Islamabad by the Federal Board of Revenue. The Board in Council decided this during Friday’s meeting. The NFC is a significant reform that modifies Pakistan’s tax audit and assessment procedures.
Until now, a taxpayer whose return was picked for audit had to deal with a particular officer in a particular office, often in person. Under the new system, that contact ends. Cases will be selected by a computerized, risk-based system rather than by any officer. Each case will then be assigned automatically to an officer who may be sitting 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 him.
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. No single officer will control 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, this will be carried out by a separate field team.
The NFC draws its legal authority from the Finance Act, 2026. It will be headed by a Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue, 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.
The change aims to eliminate face-to-face interactions that have long been a source of complaints, apply the same standards to all taxpayers, and make judgments based on data rather than personal judgment. FBR anticipates that the NFC will improve the speed, equity, and transparency of tax procedures for Pakistani taxpayers.
