The presidency has spoken on the controversy surrounding the alleged tampering with provisions in the tax laws recently passed by President Bola Tinubu. It said it was awaiting an investigation by the House of Representatives committee into the document.
“What is out there in the media did not come from the committee set up by the House of Representatives. I think we should allow them to do the investigation,” said the chairman of the presidential fiscal policy and tax reforms committee, Taiwo Oyedele, in a Channels TV interview on Monday.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and others have demanded the immediate suspension of the controversial tax laws over alleged forgery of certain provisions.
This came after a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, raised concerns about some discrepancies between tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions subsequently gazetted and made available to the public.
However, Mr Oyedele stated that the presidency did not have the version of the laws passed by the president to make any comparisons.
“Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazetted and what was passed, we have what has not been gazetted. We don’t have what was passed. The official harmonised bills certified by the clerk, which the National Assembly sent to the president, we don’t have a copy to compare. Only the lawmakers can say authoritatively what we sent,” Mr Oyedele explained.
Mr Oyedele added, “It should be the House of Representatives or Senate version. It should be the harmonised version certified by the clerk. I cannot say that I have it. I only have what was presented to Mr President to sign.
“I know that particular provision is not in the final gazette, but it was in the draft gazette. Some people decided that they should write the report of the committee before the committee had met, and it had circulated everywhere.”
Mr Tinubu recently signed the four tax reform bills into law, despite stiff opposition from federal lawmakers from the North.
The laws include the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act.
The Tinubu government said the reforms were meant to simplify tax compliance, expand the tax base, eliminate overlapping taxes, and modernise revenue collection across federal, state, and local governments.
