September 11, 2015 – Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Babatunde Fowler has pledged to work in partnership with the relevant stakeholders to shore-up the tax revenue and improve on the country’s tax administration.
Fowler made this known when he took over the mantle of leadership from the outgoing Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Sunday Ogungbesan Abuja.
He said that the new change of leadership at FIRS is predicated on the resolve of the Presidency to ensure maximum increase in tax revenue as the era of absolute dependency on oil proceeds was over.
Fowler said that the FIRS must take the lead in the tax revenue collection and must be ready to share information and ideas with the States Board of Internal Revenue (SBIR) in order to take tax administration in the country to another level.
“My vision and mission is neither to alter the existing management organogram structure in FIRS nor lay-off management staff from their duty posts, but to take FIRS as well as the nation’s tax system to an enviable height.
“This we cannot achieve all alone without a robust partnership and collaboration of all stakeholders within and outside the system. We must build a synergy for a healthy exchange of information between FIRS and SBIR.
“This synergy will produce the best form of revenue generation in the FIRS and the states in general as well as ensuring that over dependency on oil revenue becomes a thing of the past,” Fowler explained.
He said that the antidote to the economic mire was for the Service to raise revenue accruing from tax collection to “records high” so that government programme would be well funded.
Ogungbesan had solicited for more cooperation as FIRS shares a similar vision with Fowler saying, “the Chairman needs the support of all staff to succeed in the business of raising revenue and we must not lose sight to satisfy the government.’’
