Uche Usim, Abuja
The Presidency has queried the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, over poor revenue collections and remittances from the agency.
The query came as a shocker to the FIRS which had boasted it netted the highest revenue of N5.32 trillion in 2018 after recording N5.07 trillion in 2012.
The query dated August 8 and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, gave Fowler, a close ally of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, up till Monday, August 19, 2019 to respond.
The query, titled; “RE: Budgeted FIRS Collections and actual collections” centred on poor revenue collections between 2015 and 2018.
It 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.”
Recall that the FIRS earlier in the year claimed it collected N5.32 trillion in 2018, describing it the highest revenue receipt since 2012 when it realised N5.07 trillion.
The agency went ahead to declare that it was targeting N8 trillion revenue target for this year.
The N5.3 trillion revenue for last year was seen as significant particularly at a period when oil prices averaged $70 per barrel.
Oil price average of $100 to $120 per barrel between 2010 and 2013- but tax receipts fell below the 2018 estimates.
The non-oil component of the N5.320 trillion was N2.467 trillion representing 53.62 per cent of the total collection, while the oil component was estimated at N2.852 trillion or 46.38 per cent.
FIRS said it collected N212,792 billion in audit from 2,278 cases with a huge reduction in audit circle.
Fowler said: “While we have been steadily increasing revenue collection over the years, our cost of collection has actually been going down. In 2016, we collected N3,307 trillion, in 2017 we collected N4,027 trillion and in 2018 we collected N5,320 trillion.
Meanwhile a source at the Presidency which pleaded anonymity said on Sunday that its letter to the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler, over tax collection variations between 2015 and 2018, was not a query per se but a request for explanation, based on the information he supplied to the Presidency.
The source who expressed surprise as to how the letter got to the press said: “We don’t know how the letter got to the press. Maybe people who don’t like the Chairman inside the organisation leaked it. But it is true that the letter was indeed written on behalf of the President by the Chief of Staff.