The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the tax reform bills transmitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu in October 2024.
The bills were passed at a session presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu.
The development followed the adoption of the harmonised versions of the reform bills by both the House and the Senate.
At plenary on Wednesday, the House of Representatives considered the report of the conference committee, which harmonised the bills.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abiodun Faleke (APC, Lagos), who headed the House team to the conference committee, presented the conference report to the House for consideration.
According to him, the Conference Committee met and agreed on all areas of difference in the version passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.
He stated that there were 45 areas of difference in the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 12 areas of difference in the Nigeria Revenue Service Bill, 9 areas of difference in the Joint Revenue Board Bill and 46 areas of difference in the Nigeria Tax Bill, adding that all grey areas were resolved ahead of the passage.
While the conference committee agreed to retain the Senate version in some of the clauses, they also retained the House version in some others, making amendments in a few others.
The conference committee agreed to the imposition of a 4 per cent development levy on the assessable profit of all companies chargeable to tax under Chapters 2 and 3, except small companies and non-resident companies.
They also agreed that the levy shall be collected by the Nigeria Revenue Service and paid into a special account created for the same purpose.
In the sharing formula, the committee agreed that 50 per cent of the tax would go to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, 15 per cent to the Education Loan Fund (up from 3 per cent agreed by the House), and 8 per cent to the Nigeria Information Technology Development Fund.
Similarly, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure is to get 8 per cent (down from 10 per cent earlier agreed by both chambers), the National Board for Technology Incubation is to get 4 per cent from the fund, defence and security infrastructure is to get 10 per cent while cyber security fund will get 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Social Security Fund, Nigeria Police Trust Fund, and National Sports Development Fund were excluded from the list of beneficiaries passed by the House of Representatives.
The committee also adopted a new clause 158, which imposes a 5 per cent surcharge on chargeable fossil fuel products provided or produced in Nigeria and shall be collected at the time a chargeable transaction occurs.
The controversial Value Added Tax sharing formula was not part of the areas of disagreement between the two legislative chambers.
In his remarks, Kalu said the parliament has played its part in ensuring that the country moves forward, even as he urged the executive arm of government to do its part.
In his contribution, a member of the House representing Gwoza/Damboa/Chibok Federal Constituency, Borno State, Ahmed Jaha warned those who will clean up the bill not to tamper with any of the clauses passed, saying “Where the T is not crossed, don’t cross it, where the I is not dotted, don’t do it. We have the original copies of the bills as passed before and after harmonisation.
“We have had cases in the past where those in charge of cleaning up the bills tamper with it and at the end of the day, the President will withhold assent. That must not happen.”
That said, the All Progressives Congress lawmaker singled out Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu for praise, saying, “I want to thank your leadership for the role you played in making these bills a success. I also want to thank the Chairman of the Committee, Abiodun Faleke. He showed that he is truly a good elder. He provided a lot of training for some of us, and I want to say that this is the way to go.”
