Lagos PDP Chieftain Raises Alarm Over Different Versions Of Gazetted Tax Law

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Funso Doherty, has raised concerns over what he described as conflicting versions of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act available on official government websites.

In an open letter addressed to the Chairman of the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), Doherty highlighted that, as of Tuesday, two different versions of the gazetted tax law could be downloaded from the NRS website.

According to him, both versions bear the same publication date and number but contain materially different provisions.

Doherty noted that one of the versions differs significantly from the Act previously released by the National Assembly.

He also pointed out that the website of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal and Tax Reforms displays a similar discrepancy, offering multiple versions of the same Act for download.

The PDP chieftain called on the NRS to urgently clarify the matter to prevent further public uncertainty, emphasizing that Nigerians may be concerned about the existence of multiple versions of the same federal gazette publication.

“You may wish to address this, so that further controversy or confusion does not arise over which version of the law the NRS is actually implementing.

“Nigerians may also be wondering, as I still am, how there can be multiple versions of the same federal gazette publication that bear the same publication date and number but that differ in content,” Doherty said in the letter.

The open letter, copied to the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal and Tax Reforms, and the Lagos State Attorney-General, comes amid ongoing debates over the implementation of the new tax reforms, which formally began on January 1.

As of the time of filing this report, the NRS was yet to respond to Doherty’s letter.