By Jerry Uwah Lagos
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday declined to entertain application fi led by Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to travel abroad for medical care. In his application, fi led by his counsel, Kolawole Salami, Dudafa urged the court to order the release of his international passport to enable him travel abroad for medical care for spinal cord injury. He alleged that he sustained the injury while in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Dudafa was charged alongside Joseph Iwuejo, who the EFCC claimed aided him to perpetrate the alleged fraud. Th e trial judge, Mohammed By Taiye Odewale Abuja Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) yesterday declared that it has projected N1.8 trillion Value Added Tax (VAT) collections for 2017 fi scal year.
Th e projection was made by the Executive Chairman of the revenue collecting agency, Mr. Tunde Fowler, in his 2017 budget defence presentation to the Senate Committee on Finance. Th e FIRS boss told the committee that the budget focused on capacity to increase VAT and other non-oil revenue. He noted that principally, VAT is expected to grow from an actual of N828 billion to a budget of N1.8 trillion which is over 125 per cent increase. He also told the committee that the achievement of the 2017 budget would be driven by VAT collection.
“Th e Service in realisation of this responsibility and challenges of doing manual collection, have automated VAT collection for the critical sectors of the economy notably telecommunications, airlines and fi nancial institutions.” He told the committee that the Service proposed to collect the following tax revenue target as derived from the federal government 2016-2018 Medium Term Revenue Framework (MTRF) for 2017 amounting to a total of N4.89 trillion. Fowler said the budget for oil revenue dropped by nine per cent over 2016 actual due to low oil price that operated in the year. Fowler prayed the Senate to approve “the surplus budget of N848arising from expected total revenue of N153.4 billion over expenditure of N152.6 billion.” On the revenue projections performance for the period January to June 2017, the FIRS boss said that the analysis showed that the Service have recorded an increase of N224 billion representing an overall increase of 14 per cent in 2017, when compared with the collection performance for the corresponding period in 2016.
“We have, therefore, achieved 72.93 per cent of our half year target of N2.44 trillion for 2017 as against 74.2 per cent of N2.1 trillion for the corresponding period in 2016,” he said. Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator John Enoh, stressed the need for the FIRS to work to achieve approved target. Enoh noted that with a defi cit of over N2 trillion, if the Service failed to meet its target, it would impact negatively on the implementation of the 2017 budget. Idris, had ordered that Dudafa should deposit his passport in the custody of the court as part of the conditions for his bail. In his application, Dudafa informed the court that the medical appointment, earlier scheduled for July 18 and 19, was rescheduled for July 28 to enable him get his passport. He, therefore, appealed to vacation judge, Justive Chuka Obiozor, to hear and grant the application on grounds of ill health.
