Karachi, May 28, 2025 – In a dramatic turn of events, a key committee within Pakistan Customs has delivered a stunning blow to the controversial Faceless Customs Assessment (FCA) system, declaring it a failure and recommending its immediate suspension.
The move sends shockwaves through the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) digital transformation agenda, which had pinned high hopes on FCA to revolutionize cargo clearance.
The Customs committee, after a comprehensive review of the Directorate General of Customs Risk Management (CRM) report, delivered a scathing verdict: FCA has failed to deliver. Despite lofty ambitions of eliminating collusion and improving transparency in the assessment process, FCA has, according to the committee, done little more than disrupt operational efficiency.
Introduced as part of the FBR’s modernization initiative, the FCA was touted as a game-changing innovation to root out corruption by severing direct contact between importers and assessing officers. Yet, the Customs committee’s findings are stark – FCA has not only failed to curb collusion but has also shown negligible impact on revenue generation.
“The very foundation of FCA is flawed,” the committee remarked in its report. “Either the FCA cannot stop collusion in its current form, or the problem of collusion is too insignificant to begin with – rendering the entire system redundant.”
The committee went further, slamming two of the FCA’s core concepts: concealing trader information from officers and dismantling specialized assessment groups – both failed experiments previously discarded two decades ago during the PaCCS rollout. Revisiting such discarded practices, the committee argued, was a strategic misfire that has backfired spectacularly.
Customs officials stressed that specialized assessment groups not only build sectoral expertise but also speed up processing through familiarity with specific goods. On the other hand, hiding critical information from officers only hampers accurate evaluation, they said.
In a decisive statement, the committee ruled that no further phase of FCA should be implemented unless its structure is radically overhauled and its effectiveness reassessed with broader data sets.
To leave no stone unturned, the committee also called for a forensic audit by PCA, targeting GDs from high-risk sectors like vehicles, chemicals, and commercial fabric imports — to determine whether FCA may have triggered hidden revenue losses that haven’t yet surfaced.
As the spotlight intensifies on Customs reforms, this fierce takedown of the FCA marks a turning point. With its credibility in question and its future hanging by a thread, the once-heralded FCA faces a storm it may not survive. The Customs community has spoken – and unless drastic changes are made, FCA may become the poster child of a reform gone wrong.
This explosive development leaves the FBR with one choice: Rethink FCA. Reset Customs strategy. Restore accountability.