The Presidency has dismissed claims that the newly signed tax reform laws contain discrepancies, insisting that the documents circulating in the media are not authentic.
The clarification followed allegations by a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, who claimed that the versions of the tax laws gazetted and released to the public differed from those passed by the National Assembly. Dasuki argued that his legislative rights had been violated.
Following the allegation, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and several civil society organisations called on the Federal Government to suspend the implementation of the new tax laws.
However, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, the Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, rejected the claims, stating that the documents being compared were not official.
Oyedele explained that there was no valid basis for comparing the laws passed by the National Assembly with the versions reportedly gazetted, because the officially harmonised bills certified by the Clerk of the National Assembly had not yet been made public.
According to him, only lawmakers are in a position to state authoritatively what was transmitted to the President, adding that even members of the tax reform committee do not have access to the certified harmonised versions.
“Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazetted and what was passed, we need to have what was passed. We don’t have it,” he said.
“The official harmonised bills certified by the Clerk, which the National Assembly sent to the President, are not available for comparison. Only the lawmakers can say authoritatively what they sent.
“It should be the harmonised version certified by the Clerk. Even me, I cannot say that I have it. I only have what was presented to the President for assent,” Oyedele added.
He further disclosed that the House of Representatives committee involved had informed him that it had not met on the issue, stressing that the document currently in circulation did not originate from the committee.
Oyedele urged Nigerians to allow the House of Representatives to complete its investigation into the matter.
President Bola Tinubu recently signed four tax reform bills into law as part of the administration’s fiscal reform agenda.
