By Paul Effiong
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, James Faleke has assured that the proposed tax reform bills presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu would birth an acceptable revenue for Nigeria and citizens.
Faleke gave the assurance on Thursday after the House considered and adopted a report on the four tax reform bills at the National Assembly.
“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 approved all our recommendations.
“We want to appreciate our members and all Nigerians who showed interest in this bills and we assure that the laws that will will be acceptable by all Nigerians,” he said.
In his contributions, Deputy Chairman of the committee, Saidu Abdullahi admitted that no bill in the 10th Assembly had generated such controversies as the tax reforms bills, just as he noted that the House, under the leadership of Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, was able to build consensus among stakeholders.
“They were not seen as a perfect document, they were proposals from the executive and the public hearing provided Nigerians the platform to make it better and from what we have seen today, the whole country represented by the lawmakers have assented to it,’’ he said.
He described the four bills as historic, adding that it was the reason why lawmakers worked with government and others to ensure that it scales through during plenary.
On his part, Babajimi Benson said the issues raised by relevant stakeholders ranging from inheritance tax, derivation, VAT and other were all considered by the House.
