Discrepancies Between Provisions of Tax Bills Passed and Official Gazette Amount to Usurpation of Legislative Powers by Executive Fiat

By Auwalu H. Yadudu

My Take:

Hon Abdussamad Dasuki, speaking on a breach of legislative privilege on 17th December 2025 on the floor of the House, alleged that various provisions in the four Tax Bills proposed by the executive and subsequently passed into law by National Assembly had been materially and substantially tampered with and are at variance with Gazette published officially to contain them as enforceable Acts. I have had the privilege of reading a document containing a summary of such discrepancies. What l have discovered, if subsequently verified, has convinced me to come to the inescapable conclusion that someone in the Executive arm of FGN is determined to usurp legislative functions, devoid of constitutional power, to adopt a tax reform agenda by executive feat, in total disregard of constitutional mandate and with impunity. For how else can one explain extensive review and alterations of what both houses of NASS have held a public hearing on, thoroughly debated and passed into law to insert wholly new ideas or provisions not canvassed or to remove those adopted but which they consider unacceptable.

A sample of the discrepancies observable from a review of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (the Act) reveals the following:

(A) How Section (3) 1b in the Gazette modified the corresponding section passed by NASS to delete certain provisions pertaining to petroleum income tax and VAT thereby negating the consensus reached and introducing internal inconsistency.

(B) Section 39(3) was changed to impose the US dollar as the sole currency to be used exclusively to compute tax obligations contrary to the Act as passed which allows any currency relating to the transaction to be used for computation purposes.

(C) Section 41(8) in the Gazette version introduced a wholly new section, which was not in the Act passed, to impose an obligation on a tax payer to pay 20% of a tax assessment that they disagree with to be able to file an appeal against it. This would appear to be unconstitutional.

(D) Section 60(1) in the gazetted version confers on the tax authority absolute garnishee power in respect of assets garnisheed without recourse to judicial process thereby negating procedural fairness. On the contrary, the Act passed requires a court order.

Similarly Section 60(4-5) imposes obligation on some tax authorities to require a court order to dispose of garnishee property while it exempts others. This is contrary to the Act passed by NASS which imposes obligation on ALL tax authorities to obtain court order before disposing of any garnisheed assets.

Above are only a few of the discrepancies observed in some sections of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act. There may well be many more in this same Act as well as the three others.

This development raises very serious questions and concerns. We are entitled to ask: who authorized such major changes to be effected to Acts of NASS debated and adopted publicly? It also raises other major concerns.

                1.            The whole credibility of the tax reform has been called to question and utterly undermined with surreptitious and unauthorized rewriting of the Acts.

                2.            Public trust, which is in great deficit these days, has further been eroded, undermined and punctured.

                3.            The audacity and impunity with which executive power is exercised to subvert the legislative processes is worrisome. It is even more worrisome considering that such brazen display flies in the face of constitutional propriety and is contrary to procedural rules.

For the sake of transparency; so as to restore the integrity of the legislative process; and confer a much-needed respectability to the tax reform package, it is only fair that both arms of the NASS thoroughly and openly investigate these allegations. In the mean time, the proposed commencement date of January 1, 2026 for enforcement of the Tax Reform Acts would seem to be untenable and ill-advised given the alleged cloud of impropriety and illegality that have cast a blemish on the reform effort. To do otherwise will further aggravate the alleged acts of illegality, dignify impunity that subverts legislative autonomy and it risks the Gazetted version to legal challenges in courts of competent jurisdiction. Such an eventuality is murky and may subject the takeoff of the tax reforms to needless uncertainties and prolonged litigation.

*Professor Auwalu H. Yadudu was Legal Adviser to former Head of State General Sani Abacha.