Tax reform bill: Senate suspends reading, constitute adhoc committee with AGF

By Seun Ibiyemi

The Nigerian Senate has suspended action on the tax reform bills and constituted an ad-hoc committee that would engage with the federal government to resolve the contentious areas in the bills before further legislative action.

The deputy Senate president, Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary session on Wednesday, announced that the committee will be chaired by Abba Morro, minority leader.

Jibrin said the committee will hold a forum with stakeholders, including the Attorney General of the Federation, to address all areas of disagreement and ensure interests of parties are addressed before any other action will be taken

“It has been agreed by the executive and also by us that there should be a forum where we will sit with the Attorney General of the Federation, so that we can look at all the areas of disagreement and resolve them in the interest of this nation.

“It is therefore proposed that by tomorrow there will be a meeting with the committee that we will set up here.

“It’s on this note that the Committee on Finance that the bills have been referred to will hold action on public hearing and other issues until we resolve these issues,” he said.

Members of the committee include: Mohamed Tahiri Mongono, representing North-East; Adamu Aleiro, representing North-West; Oji Uzor Kalu, representing South-East; Deriake Dickson, representing South-South; Titus Zam, representing North-Central; Abdullahi Yahaya, chairman, Committee on National Planning; Adeola Solomon, chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations; Sani Musa, chairman, Senate Committee on Finance; Tokunbo Abiru, chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, and the entire leadership.