FBR sets up faceless tax audit, assessment centre in Islamabad

Dawn reported that the Federal Board of Revenue has created the National Faceless Centre in Islamabad. Under the new arrangement, audit and assessment work moves to units that operate without face-to-face contact, with the aim of curbing official discretion. The step follows an in-principle government approval granted in June under the New Tax Operating Model.

Cases will be picked by a computer using a risk-based method rather than by any officer, then allocated automatically to an official who may be posted anywhere in the country. Taxpayers will not learn who that official is, and no one person will manage a file from beginning to end, since audit, assessment and quality review pass through three separate hands. Notices, replies and hearings will take place electronically via the IRIS system, while physical verification or recovery falls to a separate field team.

An Inland Revenue chief commissioner will lead the centre, which will have separate wings for audit, assessment, quality control and field operations. Its legal footing comes from the Finance Act, 2026, and a Programme Management Unit was formed earlier to supervise the launch. FBR anticipates quicker, more equitable and clearer tax processes, according to its statement.