Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler, has been queried by the presidency to explain why his agency has not been able to meet targets set since he assumed office in 2019.
A leaked memo at the weekend showed that Mr Fowler was queried by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kywari, and given till Monday, August 19, 2019 (today) to provide an explanation for the shortfall in the tax generated between 2015 and 2018.
In 2015, FIRS set N4.7 trillion target but could only make N3.7 trillion in the actual collection and 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, N4.0 trillion and N5.3 trillion, respectively.
FIRS recorded a total collection of N5.07 trillion in 2012 when the exchange rate of Naira to the United States dollar was 190/1 but in a statement in January 2019, it said the N5.32 trillion collection for 2018 was the highest revenue ever generated by FIRS in history as the highest in FIRS was N5.07 trillion generated in 2012 even though exchange rate had deteriorated to 362/1.
In the query personally signed and stamp-dated August 8, by Mr Kyari, the presidency said it “observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018.”
The query, which has trended on social media since early Sunday morning and titled Re-Budgeted FIRS Collection and Actual Collections, the presidency told Mr Fowler to “submit a comprehensive variance analysis explaining the reasons for the variances between budgeted and actual collections for each tax item for each of the years 2015 to 2018.”
“Further we have observed that actual collections for the period between 2015 and 2017 were significantly worse than what was collected between 2012 and 2014,” stated Mr Kyari. “Accordingly, you are kindly invited to explain the reasons for the poor collections.”
On August 21, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mr Fowler on a term of four years which is, however, renewable for another term. This was after Mr Buhari removed Mr Samuel Odugbesan from the position. Mr Odugbesan was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan to head the federal tax agency.
Before his appointment in 2015, Mr Fowler was the former executive chairman of Lagos State Inland Revenue Board (LIRS).
