*Mr Fowler*
President Muhamamdu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, has queried the Managing Director of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Babatunde Fowler over worsening revenue collection since 2015.
The query was dated August 8th.
In the letter, he said the Presidency has “observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018.”
Reports have revealed that the FIRS has been unable to meet its collection target since the inception of Buhari’s government in 2015.
The Presidency has also invited Fowler, a former LIRS boss for questioning on the inability to meet its targets.
“Accordingly, you are kindly invited to submit a comprehensive variance analysis explaining the reasons for the variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for each main tax item for each of the years 2015 to 2018,” Mallam Kyari wrote.
The Chief of Staff to the President stressed that “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.
“Accordingly, you are kindly invited to explain the reasons for the poor collections.”