The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has urged Nigerians to exercise patience and await the outcome of an investigation by the House of Representatives into claims that discrepancies exist between the gazetted tax laws and the versions passed by the National Assembly.
The call follows allegations raised last Wednesday by Abdussamad Dasuki, a member of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State, who claimed that the tax laws currently gazetted and available to the public are different from those approved by lawmakers. In response, the House constituted a seven-member committee to probe the matter.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme on Monday, Oyedele said the lawmakers are best placed to clarify the issue, as they are the ones who passed the bills and forwarded the harmonised version to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
“Let’s wait for the findings of the lawmakers. If, indeed, there were alterations,” he said. “And if those alterations were substantial, in other words, they’re not editorial, then the next step would be to see how best to address those issues.”
Oyedele stressed that before any conclusion can be reached about discrepancies, there must be access to both the gazetted law and the certified version passed by the National Assembly.
“We have what is gazetted, we don’t have what was passed,” he said. “So, the official harmonised bills certified by the clerk, which the national assembly sent to the president, we don’t have the copy to compare. That’s a fundamental issue that people need to be aware of.”
He explained that only lawmakers can authoritatively state what was transmitted to the President for assent.
“So, only the lawmakers can say authoritatively that ‘this is what we sent’. And that ‘what we sent’, shouldn’t be the House of Rep version, it shouldn’t be the Senate version. It should be the harmonised version certified by the clerk,” he said. “So, I can’t say that I have it because I don’t. I only have what was presented to Mr President to sign.”
The tax expert also dismissed documents circulating online and in parts of the media, describing them as false. “What has been circulating and also widely reported by a lot of media organisations is actually fake,” Oyedele said.
He disclosed that he contacted a member of the House committee after seeing some of the allegations.
“So, when I saw those things, you would imagine someone like me would take a very keen interest in something like that,” he said. “So, I reached out to one of the members of the committee that the House of Rep set up.”
Oyedele cited a specific example involving an alleged provision that requires a 20 percent deposit. According to him, that provision did not appear in the final gazette but was contained in an earlier draft.
“Let me even tell you the reason why I reached out. There’s a reference in one of those materials to section 41, subsection 8, that says you have to pay a deposit of 20 per cent,” he said.
“So, I reached out, and the lawmaker said that they haven’t even met. Some people decided to write the committee’s report before the committee met, and it has since circulated widely. So, I don’t know whether it’s useful because, to be honest, I don’t want to speculate.”
Oyedele said the investigation should be allowed to run its full course, noting that the matter goes beyond tax reform.
“It is not just about the tax reform laws, it’s about our processes,” he said. “That’s how we make those processes have quality assurance, almost like a system that is so tamper-proof, like the way you print your currency or the way you print the ballot box, ballot papers. That is the way we should take legislation. It matters a lot.”
He added that Nigeria has previously encountered similar issues with major laws.
“Different versions” of legislation are often printed in the country, he said, adding that “we saw it with Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).”
The House Committee is expected to submit its findings in the coming weeks.
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