Fowler not under investigation, Presidency declares

The Presidency has denied media reports making the rounds that Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, is under investigation.

The Presidency, through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, while debunking the rumour wrote on his verified Twitter account that the letter from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari “raises concerns over the negative run of the tax revenue collection.”

It stated that taking a cue from Monday’s presentation of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential retreat for ministers-designate, 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 fell behind recurrent expenditure even without having being factored into capital expenditure.

It added: “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 realisation in tax revenues.

“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.

“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.”

The Daily Times recalls that a memo by Abba Kyari to Fowler numbered FIRSECICWPr0249/1027 and dated July 26, had said: “We observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period of 2015 to 2018.

“Accordingly, you are kindly invited to submit a comprehensive variance analysis explaining the reasons for the variances between budgeted and actual collections for each main tax item for each of the years 2015 to 2018.

“Furthermore, we observed that the actual collections for the period 2015 to 2017 were significantly worse than what was collected between 2012 and 2014.

“Accordingly, you are kindly invited to explain the reasons for the poor collections.

“You are kindly invited to respond by August 19.”