The presidency on Monday weighed in on the controversy trailing the new tax laws scheduled to take effect on January 1 in the country.
This comes as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and several civil society organisations called for the suspension of the implementation of the laws.
A member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, recently raised concerns about what he described as discrepancies between tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions subsequently gazetted and made available to the public.
Dasuku argued that his legislative rights had been breached because the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect what lawmakers debated and approved on the floor of the House.
But speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, the Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, said what has been circulating in the media was fake.
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“Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazette and what was passed, we have what has not been gazette. We don’t have what was passed,” he said.
“The official harmonised bills certified by the clerk, which the National Assembly sent to the President, we don’t have a copy to compare. Only the lawmakers can say authoritatively what we sent.
“It should be the House of Representatives or Senate version. It should be the harmonised version certified by the clerk. Even me, I cannot say that I have it. I only have what was presented to Mr President to sign.”
Oyedele stated that he reached out to the House of Representatives Committee regarding a particular Section 41 (8), which states, “You have to pay a deposit of 20 per cent.”
He noted that the response given by the committee was that its members had not met on the issue.
“I know that particular provision is not in the final gazette, but it was in the draft gazette. Some people decided that they should write the report of the committee before the committee had met, and it had circulated everywhere.
“What is out there in the media did not come from the committee set up by the House of Representatives. I think we should allow them do the investigation,” Oyedele added.
President Bola Tinubu signed the four tax reform bills into law, marking what the government has described as the most significant overhaul of the country’s tax system in decades.
The tax reform laws, which faced stiff opposition from federal lawmakers from the northern part of the country before their passage, are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.
The laws include the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, all operating under a single authority, the Nigeria Revenue Service.
According to the Federal Government, the reforms are designed to simplify tax compliance, expand the tax base, eliminate overlapping taxes, and modernise revenue collection across federal, state, and local governments.
