Presidency on Monday denied that the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler is undergoing investigation
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said reports making the rounds in some media outlets, do not represent the truth.
According to Shehu, 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,” he said.
The government said it has also become necessary to state categorically that the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler, is not under any investigation.
Presidency noted 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.
“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,” he said.
The statement said it is however 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.
In a related development, Presidency also denied knowledge of any letter announcing plans to resign by the Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in text messages in response to enquiries on the issue.
The Head of Service of the Federation, Oyo-Ita who is billed to speak at the Ministers retreat tomorrow at the Presidential Villa was however conspicuously absent at the opening ceremonies on Monday.
But Shehu said he was not in possession of any letter by the embattled Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, indicating interest to go on retirement.
“We have no such letter here, in the event that such a letter exists. This is our position,” Shehu said.
The embattled Head of Service was reportedly invited by the men of Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) over alleged involvement in over N3b contract scam.
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