FIRS: Fowler Indicted, Failed To Remit N41 Billion

By Akinwale Kasali

When Babatunde Fowler’sTenure as the FIRS boss was not renewed, not a few eyebrows were raised. The suspicion was that something was definitely wrong. The man wanted a renewal so badly that he did the unprecedented. He wrote to the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha,  and offered himself for reappointment. He was rebuffed, and another person was appointed in his place.

It was a bad time for him.

And, it seems to be getting worse for him.

It is not the best of time for the once very powerful immediate past Executive Chairman of the  FIRS. Fowler is presently in trouble waters.

He is being indicted for his failure to collect and remit over N41 billion taxes from Lagos State and some other States.

Government Audit Reports discovered these anomalies in the FIRS account over the failure to collect taxes to the  tune of N41 billion.  Lagos State is owing the giant sum.

This is worsened by the alleged  failure of Fowler to meet up with FIRS’s target over the past four consecutive years, the report added.

The taxes, which are yet to be collected from companies, government agencies, and local government councils, are valued at N40.8 billion.

In the report for the year ended December 2017, the Auditor-General of the Federation, AGF, Anthony Ayine, said the observation was made during the review of records filed by Companies at Federal Inland Revenue Service Micro and Small Tax Offices (MSTO), Medium Tax Offices (MTO), Large Tax Offices (LTO) and Government Business Tax Offices (GBTO) within the South–west Zone comprising of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, and Oyo states.

He said the uncollected taxes which range from Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax, withholding tax, education tax, to Capital Gains Tax may deny the federal government its legitimate revenue.

“This may negatively affect the implementation of their programs and projects for the benefits of the citizens,” he said.

Reports from the government auditors revealed that  545 companies had not remitted their Company Income Tax (CIT) to the FIRS valued at  N26 billion.

It also stressed that Companies, Federal and State MDAs, Local Government Councils and State Governments within the South–west Zone were yet to remit about N8 billion being their Value Added Tax.

Withholding tax from companies, government agencies and local government councils valued at about N5 billion were also yet to be remitted to the FIRS under the stewardship of Fowler.

The Report stressed further that over 318 companies were said not to have remitted their Education tax which is 2 per cent on profits of Companies valued at N697 million.

It was also revealed through the reports that two companies are yet to remit N99 million, being their Capital Gain Tax of 10 per cent from the disposal of these companies’ assets.

All these unreconciled taxes were said to have been communicated to the FIRS Fowler, but he waved it away, following his relationship with the companies, the report noted.

“This issue was communicated to the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service in my letter reference No. OAUGF/RESAD/FIRS/2017/VOL.II/5 of 1st August 2018 and no response has been received as at the time of forwarding this report.”

The report also said it observed that out of 28,237 duly registered Companies, 11,221 failed to submit their annual returns to various tax offices.

This, it said, is contrary to the provision of Company Income Tax Act which requires a company to render an account of its operations within six months of its accounting year-end.

This number of companies who failed to render its returns represents 39 per cent of duly registered companies with the FIRS.

It was gathered that since the assumption of office by Fowler, he has failed to meet collection targets, which saw the fortunes of the FIRS dwindled every preceding year.

In 2015 when Fowler came on board, the FIRS set a N4.7 trillion target but was only able to make N3.7 trillion in the actual collection.

It was, however  the same scenario in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the target collections were N4.2 trillion, N4.8 trillion and N6.7 trillion but the actual collections were N3.3 trillion, N4 trillion and N5.3 trillion, respectively.

This, the Magazine -https.thesourceng.com learnt were also part of the issues why his term wasn’t extended by President Muhammadu Buhari.