Written by Faisal Shahnawaz in Taxation, Top stories The new system will automate case selection, officer assignment and tax proceedings while reducing direct interaction between taxpayers and officials. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched the National Faceless Centre (NFC) in Islamabad as part of a major reform aimed at changing the way tax audits and assessments are conducted across Pakistan. The initiative was approved during a meeting of the Board in Council on Friday. The new framework is designed to remove direct interaction between taxpayers and tax officers and shift tax proceedings towards a fully digital and automated process. Computer-Based Case Selection Under the previous system, taxpayers whose returns were selected for audit generally had to deal with a designated tax officer at a specific office. The new mechanism will replace this arrangement with a computerised, risk-based system for selecting cases. Once a case is selected, it will be automatically assigned to an officer, regardless of where that official is located in Pakistan. Taxpayers will not be informed about the identity of the officer handling their case, while officers will also have no influence over the cases assigned to them. Three-Level Review System The FBR has introduced multiple layers of oversight under the faceless model. One officer will conduct the audit, another will undertake the assessment, while a third official will review…