The Presidency has moved to calm growing outrage over Nigeria’s new tax regime, insisting that documents being circulated as proof of tampering with the laws are not official.
The clarification follows calls by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, and several civil society groups for the suspension of the tax laws, which are due to kick in on January 1, 2026.
Their demands came after a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, raised a matter of privilege on the floor of the House, alleging that the tax laws gazetted by government were different from what the National Assembly passed.
He argued that his rights as a lawmaker had been violated because the published versions did not reflect what was debated and approved.
However, appearing on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, said what is being widely shared is not based on the certified versions of the bills.
“Before you can say there is a difference between what was gazetted and what was passed, we have what has not been gazetted. 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.”
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Oyedele said he had contacted the relevant House committee about a controversial clause in Section 41 (8), which states, “You have to pay a deposit of 20 per cent.”
He explained that the committee confirmed it had not yet met formally on that specific 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 has already signed four major tax reform bills into law – the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act – all to be implemented under a single authority, the Nigeria Revenue Service.
The administration has described the package as the most sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system in decades.
The laws, which initially met stiff opposition from some northern lawmakers before passage, are aimed at simplifying tax compliance, expanding the tax base, eliminating multiple taxation and modernising revenue collection at the federal, state and local levels.