The House of Representatives Minority Caucus Ad-hoc Committee investigating alleged distortions in Nigeria’s tax reform laws has confirmed that illegal alterations were made to some of the Acts passed by the National Assembly and signed by President Bola Tinubu.
In its interim report released on Friday, the committee identified the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, as the most affected. The report followed public outrage after lawmaker Abdulsamad Dasuki raised concerns over discrepancies between the versions passed by lawmakers and those published in the official gazette.
In its preliminary findings, the committee stated: “There were some alterations as alleged, especially in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025. There were three different versions of the documents in circulation.”
It added that the directive to “align” the Acts with the Federal Government Printing Press showed “procedural anomalies” that “illegally encroached on the core mandate of the National Assembly.”
Among the discrepancies identified, the committee noted that Section 29(1) reduced the individual reporting threshold from N50 million to N25 million in the gazetted version, describing it as “a clear case of the executive undermining legislative powers.”
It also faulted the insertion of Sections 41(8) and 41(9), which imposed a mandatory 20 per cent deposit for tax appeals, stating that “these sections were not in the authentic version.”
The report further accused the gazetted Act of unlawfully expanding enforcement powers, allowing arrests and asset sales without court orders, and removing petroleum tax and VAT from federal taxes, calling it “an affront to the exclusive powers of the National Assembly.”
The committee also criticized provisions mandating dollar-based tax computation for petroleum operations, contrary to the approved version.
On the Nigerian Revenue Service Act, it said parliamentary oversight provisions were removed, describing this as “total disregard and disrespect of the institution of the National Assembly and the doctrine of checks and balances.”
