Presidency, on Monday, dismissed claims of discrepancies in the newly signed tax reform laws.
It described the documents circulating in the media as fake.
The Presidency made this clarification following allegations by a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, that the versions of the tax laws gazetted and released to the public differed from those passed by the National Assembly.
The lawmaker argued that his legislative rights had been violated.
Following the allegation, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and some civil society organisations urged the government to suspend the implementation of the laws.
But appearing on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, declared that the documents circulating in the media were not genuine.
Oyedele explained that there was no basis for comparing the laws passed by the National Assembly with the gazetted versions because the officially harmonised bills certified by the Clerk of the National Assembly had not been made public.
According to him, only the lawmakers can authoritatively state what was transmitted to the President.
Oyedele noted that even members of the tax reform committee did not have access to the certified harmonised versions.
He said, “Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazette 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.
“It should be the House of Representatives or Senate version. 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 Mr President to sign.”
He added that the House of Representatives committee informed him that it had not met on the matter, adding that the document in circulation did not emanate from the committee.
He urged the public to allow the House of Representatives to conduct its investigation into the matter.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu recently signed four tax reform bills into law.
