Babatunde Fowler
Nigeria’s Presidency explains query to head of revenue authority, Fowler
Nigerian presidency has further explained why it queried the Executive Chairman of the top revenue agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Tunde Fowler, saying that Fowler’s revenue target may have been misleading since the government relies on revenue projections from revenue agencies to make its own forecasts.
The Presidency also noted that the query is a concern about “negative run of the tax revenue collection in recent times”. Since 2015 when Fowler was appointed, the revenue authority never reached its annual target. Fowler’s target for 2019 is N8.8 trillion but the half-year revenue report is less than N2.5 trillion.
The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari in a letter dated August 8th, 2019 demanded explanation from the FIRS why there is always a gap between the revenue target and actual revenue collection. The query also noted the revenue has dropped compared to what obtained under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Fowler’s response was expected on Monday. Presidential sources said he has responded to the query.
On Monday, however, the presidency explained that the query to Mr Fowler does not mean that he is being investigated.
“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 revenue,” presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said in a statement.
Read Mr Shehu’s full statement below.
Following reports making the rounds in some media outlets, it is necessary to state categorically that the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, 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 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.
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.