Babatunde Fowler's tax strategy

Federal Inland Revenue  Service has spurred some controversy with the new regulation that requests people to show tax clearance before they can renew or register for a passport. Newly-appointed chairman of   FIRS, Babatunde Fowler when he assumed office had pledged to build a strong partnership with the "relevant industry players" to shore-up Nigeria’s tax revenue and improve on the country’s tax administration. Fowler said the change in leadership at the revenue agency was as a result of the presidency’s drive for maximum increase of tax revenues as the era of absolute dependency on oil proceeds was over.
The hesitation among industry workers spans from relevant industry players that were mentioned in Fowler's strategy statement. So far he has coopted the immigration service into the tax drag net perhaps customers, FRSC and even health administration would follow. These are not bad ideas since FIRS bane has been the inability to get the informal sector in Nigeria into the tax drag net.  If anyone can do it Fowler is certainly the man. His antecedents are sound as he helped shore up the tax revenue in Lagos state. 
Born 12 August 1956 Fowler has a reputation of increasing revenues via tax.  a Nigerian public officer, tax administrator and social reformer. He was the Executive Chairman Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue and Chief Executive Officer Lagos State Internal Revenue Service.
Data from the 36 States Internal Revenue Service (SIRS) as at November 2016 shows that only 13,034,222 million individuals and enterprises pay taxes regularly.  Fowler made this disclosure in Abuja recently.He said Lagos State tops the list with 4,088,128 million taxpayers, while Gombe State, the lowest, has 33,000. Breakdown of the data reveals that 8,550,643 million individuals pay taxes as well as 4,483,579 million enterprises.The FIRS boss gave the details in a presentation entitled: ‘An Appraisal of Collaboration between the Federal Inland Revenue Service and States Internal Revenue Service to the 136th Meeting of the Joint Tax Board’. Most economy watchers believe that the increased drive for tax could further burden people of the country who are still suffering from the challenging circumstances of earning a living in a recession.