By Shola Abayomi.
The Presidency has issued a query to the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler over poor revenue collections.
The query signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, sought explanations for insufficient tax collected between 2015 and 2018.
The FIRS boss was instructed to submit a comprehensive report on August 19, 2019, explaining the variances between the budgeted and actual collections for each main tax item for each of the years 2015 to 2018.
The query titled, “RE: Budgeted FIRS Collections and actual collections”, reads: “Your attached letter (FIRS/EC/ECW/0249/19/027 dated 26 July 2019) on the above subject matter refers.
“We observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 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.
“Further more, we observed that the actual collections for the period 2015 to 2017 were significantly lower worse than what was collected between 2012 and 2014. Accordingly, you are kindly to explain the reason for the poor collections.
“You are kindly invited to respond by 19 August 2019.”
Babatunde Fowler is perceived to be a loyalist of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, having served as a former chairman of the Lagos Inland Revenue Services (LIRS).