Reps Minority Confirms Alleged Alteration in New Tax Laws

The minority caucus of the House of Representatives says it has found “illegal” changes in the published copies of the tax reform laws.

In a statement on Friday, Afam Ogene, who heads a seven-member committee set up to investigate the issue, reportedly said a review of the laws showed that different versions are circulating.

Ogene said the order by the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives directing the clerk to “take steps to align” the laws with the federal government printing press shows that there were problems with the earlier published version.

He said these problems “illegally encroached on the core mandate of the national assembly”.

He recalled that Kingsley Chinda, the minority leader, set up the committee on January 2 to investigate the “scandal”.

The committee members are Aliyu Garu (Bauchi), Stanley Adedeji (Oyo), Ibe Osonwa (Abia), Marie Ebikake (Bayelsa), Shehu Fagge (Kano), and Gaza Jonathan (Nasarawa).

Ogene said early findings, based on a comparison of certified true copies (CTCs) from the House and the published copies, show that the laws were changed.

“There were three different versions of the documents in circulation, particularly the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.

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“The Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA), 2025, has several discrepancies from the version passed by the National Assembly and the version earlier published in the official gazette. These discrepancies are obvious, going by the released Certified True Copies (CTCs) by the House referenced earlier,” Ogene said.

He said that under section 29(1), the version passed by the National Assembly set the tax compliance reporting threshold at N50 million for individuals and N100 million for companies. However, the published version reduced the threshold for individuals to N25 million and also changed the figure for companies.

“This is a clear case of the executive undermining legislative powers by illegally altering an already passed law to drag more taxpayers into the net,” Ogene said.

He also said that section 41 of the published version added new subsections 41(8) and 41(9). These require taxpayers to pay 20 per cent of the disputed tax before they can appeal a decision of the tax appeal tribunal to the High Court.

According to him, these provisions were not part of the law passed by the National Assembly.

Pinnacle Daily reports that on December 17, Abdussamad Dasuki, a member of the House of Representatives, alleged that the tax laws passed by parliament were different from the versions published for the public.

The claim caused public anger, with some Nigerians calling for the suspension of the laws.

On December 16, the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives asked the clerk of the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, to work with executive agencies to re-publish the tax laws.

The laws involved are the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025; the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025; the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2025; and the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025.

Further, on January 3, the House of Representatives released the published copies of the tax laws for public review.

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