The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Rep. James Faleke (APC-Lagos) has assured that the laws that the tax reform bills outcome would be acceptable to all Nigerians.
The lawmaker gave the assurance in Abuja, on Thursday, while speaking with newsmen in an interview shortly after the House considered and adopted the report on the four tax reform bills.
According to him, “the bills are, Nigerian Tax Bill, the Tax Administration Bill, the Revenue Tax Board and the Nigerian Revenue Service establishment Bill, these bills took three full days of public hearing, we took memoranda from more than 80 critical stakeholders and after the three days, we resorted to a retreat for eight days, debating all the clauses for each of the bills.
“I am glad that members of the house saw that we had done a thorough job and they have approved all our recommendations.
“We want to appreciate our members and all Nigerians who showed interest in these bills and we assure that the laws that will come after these bills are acceptable by all Nigerians,” he said.
He commented the the leadership of the House for entrusting the committee with the responsibility of processing the tax bills and to lay them before the House.
He also commended President Bola Tinubu for considering it worthy to amend tax laws saying that some of our tax laws are as old as 1959.
According to him, “We cannot continue to operate with those tax laws that are archaic to meet our demands for survival, business and for the revenue target that we seek to achieve.
Also speaking, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Rep. Saidu Abdullahi (APC-Niger) said that no bill in the 10th Assembly had generated such controversies as the tax reforms bills.
He said that the house, under the leadership of Speaker Tajudeen Abbas was able to build consensus among all the stakeholders.
Abdullahi said that interest groups from each geo-political zone and regional thought leaders were drafted into the committee which allayed the fears of the people.
He said that the recommendations of the committee were an offshoot of all the inputs of the various stakeholders.
“There were never seen as a perfect document, there were proposals from the Executive and the puli hearing provided Nigerians the platform to make the better and from what we have seen today, the whole country represented by the lawmakers have assented to it,” he said.
Source;(TribuneOnline)
