The Presidency has dismissed widespread claims of discrepancies in the newly signed tax reform laws.
It claimed that the documents that were making the rounds in the media were fake.
The explanation was provided after Abdulsamad Dasuki, a member of the House of Representatives, said that the reform laws that were gazetted and made public were different from those that were approved by the National Assembly.
The lawmaker claimed that there had been a violation of his legislative rights.
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However, Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, stated that the documents making the rounds in the media were fake in an interview with Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday.
Oyedele claimed that because the officially harmonised bills certified by the National Assembly Clerk had not been made public, there was no foundation for comparing the laws passed by the National Assembly with the gazetted versions.
He clarified that what was sent to the President could only be officially stated by MPs.
He pointed out that the certified harmonised versions were not available to even the tax reform committee members.
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“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,” he said.
“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,” Oyedele said.
He claims that the House of Representatives committee notified him that it had not convened to discuss the issue and that the document currently in circulation did not originate from the committee.
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He pleaded with the public to let the House of Representatives look into the situation.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had recently signed four tax reform bills into law.
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