SGF pledges support for FIRS Chairman, Board

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha has pledged his support for Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mohammed Nami and the newly inaugurated Service Board.

The SGF made the pledge in his office on Monday while presenting the letters of appointments to the chairman and the newly inaugurated members of the FIRS Board to the Chairman.

The SGF congratulated the FIRS Chairman on his recent appointment, stressing that the Federal Government was confident that the FIRS on Nami’s watch would meet and exceed the government’s revenue targets from taxation.

The SGF stressed that the Federal Government “needs all the money to enable President deliver on his mandate”.

To this end, the SGF advised the FIRS Chairman to be proactive in his tax collection drive noting that the government’s funding gap was large, hence its resort to borrowing in recent times.

Mustapha stated that if more revenue could be generated from tax there would be less need for government to borrow.

The SGF revealed that “As a cost-cutting measure in governance, the Federal Government has directed its officials, particularly ministers, to reduce the number of aides who travel with them”.

He decried the situation where the overhead cost of governance far outweighs capital expenditure.