Okay, relax, we did not use that adjective by our own selves; the Federal High Court in Abuja described some provisions of the Finance Act so. According to TVC News on its website, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) brought a case brought before the Federal High Court Abuja, challenging some amendments to the Finance Act, 2021. The Presiding Judge, Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, ruled in favour of RMAFC, granting all its prayers.
TVC News reported that Justice Taiwo ruled Section 4(2) of the Finance (Control and Management) Act as contained in the Finance Act 2021 as invalid, unconstitutional, null and void, because it looks to give the Minister of Finance the power to create other accounts (called by whatever name, including, “relevant Special Purpose Account”) asides the Federation Account, to which money due to the Federal Government can go.
According to the news report, other Sections of the Finance Act that were ruled against include Section 4(1) and Section 4(3) of the Finance (Control and Management) Act, Section 89(3) of the Stamp Duty Act, Section 63(5) of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act (FIRSEA) 2007, and the provisions of the amendments to Sections 68(3), 68(6) and 81(1) of the FIRSEA 2007, all as contained in the Finance Act 2021.
TVC’s news report further established that what these rulings mean in simple terms is that, “the RMAFC is not answerable to the Minister of Finance in the performance of its constitutional functions.” On whether or not the Ministry of Finance would be appealing the judgement, TVC reported that an anonymous official of the Ministry was silent about that, but he stated that the Ministry was “in possession of the judgement and was already making amendments to some provisions that will be reflected in the coming Finance Act 2022”.
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