Senate Establishes Committee To Review Tax Reform Bills With AGF

On Wednesday, the Senate established a committee to review the controversial Tax Reform Bills that are before the National Assembly.

The Committee which is headed by Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South) will meet with the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, to address grey areas in the bills and revert to the Senate before a public hearing.

Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin disclosed this during plenary on Wednesday.

Barau, who presided over the session, said that the executive arm of the government agreed with the Senate that there is a need to resolve all the issues causing disagreements in the bills.

Barau said, “We decided to put politics, ethnicity, and regionalism aside to sit among ourselves to find a way forward concerning issues affecting the tax reform bills. It is on this note that we extended our view to the executive arm of government, and it was agreed that there should be a forum to sit down to look at the areas that are creating disagreements to resolve them so that the entire country will remain united in our efforts to solve our problems.

“Before the introduction of these bills, we know we have been faced with several problems; insecurity that we and the president have been trying to solve, issues about our economy which is in line with global economic problems. And we also agreed that we shouldn’t allow any other to come in to aggravate the problems of our country.

“It is on this note that it has been agreed by the executive and by us that there should be a forum that should sit with the Attorney General of the Federation so that we can sit and look at all the areas of disagreement and resolve them for the interest of this nation.

“It is therefore proposed that tomorrow there will be a meeting with the committee that will be set here to sit down with the Attorney General to look at those issues and resolve them. It is on this note that the Committee on Finance that the bills have been referred to halt action with a public hearing and other issues until we resolve those issues.”

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on October 3, 2024, forwarded four tax reform bills to the National Assembly.

The proposed Tax Reform Bills have generated a lot of controversies since their introduction at the National Assembly, meeting serious resistance, especially from the Northern part of the country.

Following the controversies the bills have generated, the National Economic Council had advised President Bola Tinubu to withdraw the bills to allow for further consultations, but he had refused and said that the bills should go through the necessary legislative processes.

Last week, the bills were passed at the Senate for a second reading through voice votes.

The proposed legislation seeks to harmonize, coordinate, and resolve disputes arising from revenue administration in Nigeria.