Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West), says the National Assembly will pass the tax reform bills despite opposition from different quarters.
Dickson told journalists in Abuja on Monday that
the bills would be passed like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), stressing that heavens would not fall when they are eventually passed.
On October 3, 2024, President Tinubu transmitted to the National Assembly four tax reform bills in a letter read by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajuddeen Abbas, during separate plenaries of the two chambers.
The President said the bills would bolster Nigeria’s fiscal institutions, adding that they were in line with his administration’s broader development objectives for the country.
But Nigerians including some governors, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, federal lawmakers and others have kicked against the bills.
Recall that the Senate had last week passed the bills for second reading while the House of Representatives is yet to act on the bills.
Senator Dickson dismissed the claim that the planned public hearing on the bills could be chaotic if proper consultations were not done, urging those opposed to the bills to attend the public hearing with facts if they have issues with any sections of the proposed fiscal legislations.
Dickson, who is also a former governor of Bayelsa State said, “The PIA was passed. We wanted 10% which was what Yar’adua proposed. They (federal lawmakers) reduced it to 3%. Heaven did not fall. This tax reform bills will pass and heavens will not fall.
“The Senate has passed the bills for second reading. Public hearing will take place and people should get ready to present their positions. The tax bill is a proposed law like every other and it has to go through the normal legislative process.
“Right now, taxes from Bayelsa State are paid to Lagos State and I don’t want that to continue. When there is consumption of any goods or services from any state it should be calculated and paid to that state.
“Now there is an opportunity to review the tax laws, to correct the anomalies and that is why I’m in support. I know there are states that are feeling that when they apply the new sharing formula, they will earn less. It’s for them to raise those issues and bring the statistics. I don’t go by sentiments. I go by what is right and in the national interest.”
