NASS will pass tax reform bills, heavens won’t fall – Senator Seriake Dickson

The Chairman, the Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West), has said the tax reform bills will be passed by the National Assembly despite opposition from different quarters.

In an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, Dec. 2, Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa State,  said the bills would be passed like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and the heavens would not fall.

President Tinubu had on October 3, 2024, transmitted to the National Assembly, four tax reform bills, in a letter, read by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajuddeen Abbas, during separate plenaries of the two chambers.

However, Nigerians including some governors, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, federal lawmakers and others have kicked against the bills.

Last week, the Senate passed the bills for a second reading while the House of Representatives is yet to act on the bills.

Reacting, Senator Dickson said: “The PIA was passed. We wanted 10% which was what Yar’adua proposed. They (federal lawmakers) reduced it to 3%. Heaven did not fall. This tax reform bills will pass and heavens will not fall.

“The Senate has passed the bills for second reading. Public hearing will take place and people should get ready to present their positions. The tax bill is a proposed law like every other and it has to go through the normal legislative process.

“Right now, taxes from Bayelsa State are paid to Lagos State and I don’t want that to continue. When there is consumption of any goods or services from any state it should be calculated and paid to that state.

“Now there is an opportunity to review the tax laws, to correct the anomalies and that is why I’m in support. I know there are states that are feeling that when they apply the new sharing formula, they will earn less. It’s for them to raise those issues and bring the statistics. I don’t go by sentiments. I go by what is right and in the national interest.”