The Presidency has said that Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service,FIRSC, Babatunde Fowler, “is not under any investigation”The clarification was made in a statement signed by Presidential Spokesman,Garba Shehu, Monday.
Garba said, “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.
He stated further that, “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.
According to the presidential
spokesman, “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 statement said.#TrackNigeria
