The federal government has countered claims suggesting that the tax laws signed and gazetted differ from the versions approved by the national assembly.
The allegation was raised last week by Abdulsamad Dasuki, a member of thehouse of representatives, who said the gazetted documents failed to reflect what lawmakers debated and passed.
Clarifying the claim during an end-of-year press briefing in Abuja, Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, said only one official version of the newly enacted tax reform laws exists.
Idris dismissed allegations that the laws were altered after being passed by the national assembly.
He said the version assented to by President Bola Tinubu remains intact and unchanged.
The minister said the laws followed due legislative process, including consultations and debates at the national assembly, before receiving presidential assent.
“The federal government is going ahead with the commencement of implementation, noting no changes,” Idris said.
Idris said concerns about alleged discrepancies between the version passed by lawmakers and the one gazetted had been raised within the national assembly.
He added that the executive would rely on the legislature’s internal review to determine whether any discrepancies existed.
“I think it is important for us to wait for the national assembly to look at this again to tell us whether there were discrepancies or not,” he said.
“This is, at this point, an affair of the national assembly, to which I have no jurisdiction, and I have no authority to speak about.
“As far as the government of Nigeria is concerned, there’s only one version of that tax document.”
Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential fiscal policy and tax reforms committee, also rejected claims of secret alterations.
Oyedele warned that failure to implement the tax laws from January 1 could have serious consequences for Nigerians.