The House of Representatives recently passed for the third reading the four Tax Reforms Bills the National Assembly received last October from the Executive arm of government. This comes after the House had, at plenary last Thursday, considered and approved the report of the House Committee on Finance that worked on the bills and the submissions received from Nigerians. The bills include: the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, Nigeria Revenue Service Bill, and the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill. The bills generated a lot of controversy, particularly from northern governors. They argued that the proposed reforms could disadvantage their region and called for a fairer implementation.
This prompted wider consultations and discussions among the various interests at various levels which later culminated in the public hearing to accommodate the various shades of opinions presented.
The bills were read for the third time during plenary on Tuesday. The House had last week adopted its report which contained several amendments to the bills especially to the contentious areas.
The bills will now be forwarded to the Senate for concurrence, before onward transmission to the president for his assent.
