Nigeria’s House of Representatives Adhoc Committee set up to investigate alleged alterations to the tax laws have confirmed that the observations made by their colleague, Abdusammad Dasuki were true.
The 7-man fact-finding Committee drawn from the minority caucus, led by Afam Ogene in a preliminary report disclosed that there were some alterations as alleged by Dasuki on the floor of the House of Representatives, especially in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025
The committee’s findings also show that there were three different versions of the documents in circulation, particularly the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025
The contentious portions as observed by the committee, especially in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, have a number of discrepancies from the version passed by the National Assembly and the version earlier published in the official gazette.
The discrepancies, according to the committee, are obvious, going by the released Certified True Copies (CTCs) by the House of Representatives.
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These discrepancies include:
● Section 29(1): On Reporting Thresholds:
While the National Assembly Certified version provided for a tax compliance reporting threshold of 50 million naira for individuals and 100 million naira for companies, the gazetted version lowered the reporting thresholds for individuals to (25 million naira from 50 million naira) and (100 million naira from 250 million naira) for companies; a development, the committee says is a clear case of the Executive undermining legislative powers by illegally altering an already passed law to drag more taxpayers into the net.
● Section 41: Introducing new subsections (8) and (9) prescribing a mandatory 20% Deposit for Appeals:
The gazetted version introduced new subsections 41(8) and 41(9), which required taxpayers to deposit 20% of the disputed tax amount as a condition for appealing Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) decisions to the High Court.
These sections the committee noted were not in the authentic version passed by the National Assembly.
Others include:
● Section 64: Enforcement and Power of Arrest.
The gazetted law illegally increased the powers of the tax authority to include the power to arrest individuals suspected of tax violations through law enforcement agencies and allowed for the sale of seized assets without a court order.
● Section 3(1) (b): Definition of Federal Taxes.
While the NASS Certified version defines Federal taxes to include Income Tax, Petroleum income tax, Stamp duties, and VAT, the gazetted version removed petroleum income tax and VAT from the definition of taxes under the federal government’s administration.
● Section 39(3): Currency of Tax Computation.
The illegally altered gazetted Act mandated that tax computations for petroleum operations be made in US Dollars. But in the actual version
passed by the National Assembly, it prescribed tax calculations in the currency of the transaction.
In the case of Nigerian Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the committee findings show that Section 30(1) (d), & 30(3) which provides for National Assembly Oversight Provisions were altered as stated below:
● It is observed, with grave concern, that while the authentic version passed by National Assembly provided that the National Assembly can summon, demand reports or enforce accountability in line with its constitutional role of oversight, the altered gazetted version curiously deleted this provision requiring quarterly and annual reporting to parliament regarding the Nigeria Revenue Services, in total disregard and disrespect of the institution of the National Assembly and the doctrine of checks and balances, an important bedrock of democracy.
The committee says it considers the development as an affront to the exclusive powers of the National Assembly to make laws, maintaining that given the anomalies, illegalities, and impunity observed, which clearly undermine the National Assembly’s constitutional powers, it finds the current evidence sufficient to warrant a deeper investigation.
The Adhoc Committee requested an extension to allow for a more thorough examination of the matter.
(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
