The House of Representatives at the weekend released the official certified versions of the four tax reform Acts recently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, in furtherance of its move to make some clarifications on the lingering claims that unauthorised and altered copies of the laws were being circulated to the public.
The four affected legislations are the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025; Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025; National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025; and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, 2025.
A statement issued on Saturday by the spokesman of the House, Hon. Akin Rotimi, indicated that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, ordered the immediate release to the public the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the four tax legislations, complete with the presidential endorsement and assent pages.
According to him, the decision to publish the CTCs of the legislations was taken jointly with the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, following mounting concerns that some versions of the laws available to the public did not reflect what was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President.
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The discrepancy issue was first raised on the floor of the House by Hon. Abdulsamad Dasuki, who alerted other legislators to alleged inconsistencies between the tax bills approved by parliament and the versions that were later gazetted by the executive.
During the plenary at the Green Chamber, Dasuki warned that allowing such discrepancies to persist could erode public trust in the legislative process and weaken the integrity of Nigeria’s law-making system.
The lawmaker’s motion generated serious debate among legislators and prompted calls from lawyers, tax professionals and civil society groups for an immediate clarification and suspension of implementation of the laws.
In response to the raging controversies, the Speaker constituted up a seven-member Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Aliyu Betara, with Idris Wase, Sada Soli, Adedeji Faleke, Igariwey Iduma, Fred Agbedi and Babajimi Benson as members, to investigate the matter and report to the whole House its findings.
The Ad-hoc Committee was tasked with uncovering how the alleged alterations occurred, identifying the source of the unauthorised versions and recommending safeguards to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The House spokesperson recalled that the Speaker provided strong leadership throughout the reform process, from stakeholder engagement and committee reviews to clause-by-clause scrutiny and extensive debates on the floor of the House, to ensure the laws were transparent, inclusive and responsive to Nigeria’s fiscal challenges.
Reassuring the public on the National Assembly’s legislative integrity, Rotimi maintained tht the National Assembly operated a strict record-keeping and certification process that leaves no ambiguity about the content of laws duly passed and signed.
While urging Nigerians, institutions and professionals to ignore any other documents in circulation that lack legislative certification, he stated: “The only authentic and authoritative versions of the four tax Acts are the certified copies released by the National Assembly.”
The lawmaker added that any version not certified by parliament did not form part of the official legislative record and should be treated as invalid.
