The presidency has said that the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler, is not under any investigation, just as he alarmed that the country might be heading for a fiscal crisis if urgent steps are not taken.
In a statement on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, reacted to some reports making the rounds in some media outlets, which followed a letter from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, purportedly putting the FIRS boss on his toes over revenue shortages.
However, Mr Shehu said the letter from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, on which the purported rumour of an investigation is based, merely raised 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,” the statement noted.
