FBR Ends Direct Contact With Taxpayers

In practice, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established a National Faceless Centre (NFC) in Islamabad to shift tax audits and assessments to a centralized digital system.

Key points

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• The Finance Bill additionally provides a legal framework for faceless audits, assessments and appeals.
• Under the new mechanism, audit cases will be identified through a computerized, risk-based process instead of being selected by individual tax officers.
• Once selected, cases will be automatically assigned to officers located anywhere in the country.

In practice, the new setup is part of Pakistan's New Tax Operating Model and is designed to reduce direct interaction between taxpayers and tax authorities while limiting individual discretion in tax cases. The administration had approved the model in principle in June. FBR Imposes Higher Tax on Empty Perfume Bottles.

Once selected, cases will be automatically assigned to officers located anywhere in the country. While the officer will have no control over which cases are assigned to them, the taxpayer will not be informed regarding the identity of the officer handling the case.

In practice, the process will additionally separate the main stages of a tax case. One officer will conduct the audit, another will prepare the assessment, and a third will review the work before an order is issued.

This means a single officer will no longer control a taxpayer's case from the audit stage through to the final decision.

Taxpayers will receive notices, submit responses, and attend hearings electronically through the FBR's IRIS system. Physical verification or recovery, where legally required, will be handled separately by field teams.

For context, the Finance Bill additionally provides a legal framework for faceless audits, assessments and appeals. Stay Connected with ProPakistani.

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In short, FBR Ends Direct Contact With Taxpayers is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.