The Senate Committee on Finance has said it will commence a two-day public hearing on the tax reform bills from next Monday.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa disclosed this to journalists after a closed-door session with his panel members on the matter, on Wednesday.
He said, “We have all agreed that we are starting the public hearing on February 24 and 25. We intend to take on two of the bills each day. The Senate Committee on Finance is going to invite the general public, particularly some organisations, to a two-day public hearing on the tax reform bills.
“One of them is the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Fund Bill, the Nigerian Revenue Services Bill, the Nigerian Tax Administration Bill, and the Nigerian Tax Bills.”
The Senator recalled that President Bola Tinubu submitted the four bills in 2024.
Musa noted that as of today, both chambers of the National Assembly were through with the second reading and have expressed readiness for the public hearing.
According to him, the bills are aimed at reforming the tax administration, collection and operations of taxes in Nigeria.
“The main purpose of this is to see how the government will generate more revenues so that we’ll be able to put our country on the pedestal of advanced economies where infrastructure, education, agricultural sectors and virtually every sector that revolves around the ecosystem of the economy will be adequately taken care of with enough funds.
“We want to align ourselves with Mr President. Looking at the bills, we have studied it very well as a committee. We have had an engagement with a lot of stakeholders before arriving at where we are today, and I believe that the public hearing is going to go on smoothly.
“Whatever the grey areas are, Mr President has said it, times without number, that he is not going to interfere. It is our duty as legislators to do the needful for the good of this country. We are all representatives of different tribes, religions, and geographic histories, but we are Nigerians,” he explained.
Continuing, Musa said the committee had invited many Heads of Agencies such as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy and the Minister of Trade and Investment.
The Senate committee chair said the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Petroleum, the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Services, and the Statistician General of Nigeria, who heads the National Bureau of Statistics, were also invited.
He said, “We need their submissions because we need to know how, generally what is happening in the economy, not just reading or getting it from the news. We need to know what is happening practically out there.
“We are more advanced than any other economy in Africa, and we should be able to do things that will give us that stride. What we have done, even before the public hearing, was that every member you have seen here went through the tax bills, and we are also communicating with our constituents.
“We did this so that at the end of the day, we will give Nigerians, the desired legislation that will take care of our revenue and tax administration in the country .”
On the committee’s session with the MOFI executives, Musa said the agency in charge of the federal government assets and portfolios has a great role to play in the entire issue.
He said, “We commend the initiative the institution is bringing to change the dynamics of the economy generally knowing that MOFI is the custodian of the assets and portfolios of the federal government of Nigeria.
“We are fully convinced that they are doing very well, and there are areas that we felt it should improve. We have highlighted those areas, and they had promised to do them.
“Our engagement with them will continue, and after that, we went into a closed session with distinguished members of the finance committee, and it was almost anonymous whatever we have discussed.”
