Lawmakers Confirm Alterations In Gazetted Tax Laws

The House of Representatives minority caucus ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged illegal alterations on the Gazetted tax laws has disclosed that the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 has a number of discrepancies from the version passed by the National Assembly and the version earlier published in the official gazette.

According to the panel, while the National Assembly’s certified version provides for a tax compliance reporting threshold of N50 million for individuals and N100 million for companies, the gazetted version lowered the reporting thresholds for individuals to (N25 million from N50 million) and (N100 million from N250 million) for companies.

The committee in its interim report released in Abuja on Friday said this was a clear case of the executive undermining legislative powers by illegally altering an already passed law to drag more taxpayers into the net.

A member of the House, Hon. Abdulsamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto) had last year raised the alarm on the floor of the House over discrepancies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the gazetted versions in circulation.

Consequently, the Minority Caucus early this year set up a seven-man fact-finding committee led by Hon. Afam Ogene(LP, Abia) to help the opposition lawmakers get to the root of all the issues surrounding the scandal.

Other members of the committee include Hon. Aliyu Garu – Bauchi, Hon. Stanley Adedeji – Oyo, Hon. Ibe Osonwa – Abia, Hon. Marie Ebikake – Bayelsa, Hon. MB Shehu Fagge – Kano and Hon. Gaza Gbefwi Jonathan – Nasarawa.

The House had on January 3, 2026 released the four tax reform Acts duly signed into law by President Bola Tinubu to Nigerians for public record, verification and reference.

The four Acts released were: the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025 and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, 2025.

The Ogene-led committee in its preliminary findings said by comparing the Certified True Copies of the Acts released by the House with the already gazetted version showed that there were some alterations as alleged by Hon. Dasuki especially in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.

It also found that there were three different versions of the documents in circulation, particularly the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.

The opposition lawmakers findings further indicated that the contentious portions, especially in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, include introduction of new subsections (8) and (9) to Section 41, prescribing a mandatory 20% deposit for appeals.

The committee stated that the gazetted version introduced new subsections 41(8) and 41(9), which required taxpayers to deposit 20% of the disputed tax amount as a condition for appealing Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) decisions to the High Court which were not in the authentic version passed by the National Assembly.

“Section 64: Enforcement and Power of Arrest. The gazetted law illegally increased the powers of the tax authority to include the power to arrest individuals suspected of tax violations through law enforcement agencies, and allowed for the sale of seized assets without a court order.

“Section 3(1) (b): Definition of Federal Taxes. While the NASS Certified version defines Federal taxes to include Income Tax, Petroleum income tax, Stamp duties, and VAT, the gazetted version removed petroleum income tax and VAT from the definition of taxes under the federal government’s administration. We consider this an affront to the exclusive powers of the National Assembly to make laws.

“Section 39(3): Currency of Tax Computation. The illegally altered gazetted Act mandated that tax computations for petroleum operations be made in US Dollars. But in the actual version

passed by the National Assembly, it prescribed tax calculations in the currency of the transaction,”report stated.

For the  Nigerian Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the panel observed that “while the authentic version passed by NASS provided that NASS can summon, demand reports or enforce accountability in line with its constitutional role of oversight, the altered gazetted version curiously deleted this provision requiring quarterly and annual reporting to parliament regarding the Nigeria Revenue Services, in total disregard and disrespect of the institution of the National Assembly and the doctrine of checks and balances, an important bedrock of democracy.”

“Given the anomalies, illegalities, and impunity observed, which clearly undermine the National Assembly’s constitutional powers and democracy, the Committee finds the current evidence sufficient to warrant a deeper investigation.

“This will ensure accountability for the affront against the legislature. To achieve this, the Committee respectfully requests an extension to conduct a more thorough examination of the matter.

“We appreciate the opportunity to serve the Caucus and thank the leadership for finding us worthy of the assignment,” it added.