FIRS boss, Fowler not under investigation- FG

…We exceeded targets, Fowler replies Kyari’s query

The Federal Government has said the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler is not under investigation, stressing that the federal government is concern over the negative run of the tax revenue collection between 2015 and 2018.

A leaked letter addressed to Fowler surfaced on social media at which President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday issued a letter to FIRS, asking him to respond to three years discrepancies in tax collected by the agency.

Fowler, whose tenure expired on Saturday, was asked in the letter signed by Chief of Staff o the President, Abba Kyari to explain why there exist obvious differences between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President, (Media and Publicity), Mr Garba Shehu in a statement on Monday said, “Following reports making the rounds in some media outlets, it is necessary to state categorically that the Chairman of the FIRS, Babatunde Fowler is not under any investigation.

“The letter from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, on which the purported rumour of an investigation is based, merely raises concerns over the negative run of the tax revenue collection in recent times.

“Taking a cue from today’s (Monday) presentation of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Retreat for Ministers-Designate, Federal Permanent Secretaries and Top Government Functionaries, which dwelt on an ‘Overview of the Policies, Programmes and Project Audit Committee,’ a body he chaired, projected revenue of government falls behind recurrent expenditure even without having factored in capital expenditure.

“Consequently, it would appear that the country might be heading for a fiscal crisis if urgent steps are not taken to halt the negative trends in target setting and target the realisation in tax revenue.

“Anyone conversant with Federal Executive Council deliberations would have observed that issues bordering on revenue form the number one concern of what Nigeria faces today, and therefore, often take a prime place in discussions of the body.”

He noted that the number of taxable adults have increased to 20 million from 10 million.

“It is noteworthy and highly commendable that under this administration, the number of taxable adults has increased from 10 million to 20 million with concerted efforts still on-going to bring a lot more into the tax net,” he explained in his statement.

It would be recalled that in 2015, FIRS set N4.7 trillion target but was only able to make N3.7 trillion in the actual collection.

In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the target collections were N4.2 trillion, N4.8 trillion and N6.7 trillion but the actual collections were N3.3 trillion, N4 trillion and N5.3 trillion, respectively.

Meanwhile, the tax collector boss has replied to a query by the Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari.

He insisted that the Service’s tax collection exercise actually surpassed past efforts.

Fowler, in his reply to the Presidency’s query, said the Service exceed its target in non-oil tax collection by N1.304 trillion or 21per cent between 2016 and 2018.

He attributed the decline in revenue between 2012 and 2014 to recession and fall in the price and production of crude oil within the period.

Fowler stated that, total actual collection from 2012 to 2014 was N14.5 trillion while the total actual collection between 2016 and 2018 was N12.656 trillion.