Finance Act will become null and void once Tax Reform Bills are passed into law – Taiwo Oyedele

Oyedele provided this clarification while responding to questions on related tax laws during Wednesday’s stakeholder session for tax consultants and chief financial officers (CFOs) on the PFPTRC’s proposed tax bills, which was virtually monitored by Naijaonpoint.

He emphasized that Nigerians should not expect an annual Finance Act, as the committee has advised the federal government not to introduce a Finance Act, in 2024.

Oyedele opined that the Finance Act creates too much uncertainty.

“At the last minute, you just see a new Finance Act, and you have to worry about what it entails. So we feel that if we do this reform for the next five years, we should be fine,” he said.

Oyedele explained that it was possible that all previously enacted Finance Acts have been incorporated into the reform bills, but added, “If they haven’t been incorporated, they become null and void once these bills are passed.” 

“So anything you can’t find in these bills does not exist after the bills have been passed,” he added.

Oyedele maintained that everything currently in place has been considered in drafting the new bills.

“So when you see the new (reform) bills and something is not there, it means it’s not meant to exist after the laws have been passed,” he said.

He stressed that the Committee’s timeline recommends a review of the proposed tax bills (if passed into law) every five years.

Naijaonpoint previously reported that in July this year, the Nigerian Senate passed the amendment bill to the 2023 Finance Act, which increased the windfall levy on banks’ foreign exchange revaluation gains from 50% (as proposed by the President Bola Tinubu administration) to 70%.

Sen. Musa stated, “The levy shall be 70% of the realised profits from all exchange transactions by banks. Any bank that fails to pay the windfall profit levy to the service and has not executed the deferred payment agreement by 31st December 2024 shall be liable to pay a windfall levy withheld, in addition to a fine of 10% of the levy withheld or not remitted per annum, plus interest at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) minimum discount rate.” 

Furthermore, prominent lawyer Dr. Olisa Agbakoba noted that the proposed amendment to the Finance Act was an ill-thought-out policy beyond the scope of the National Assembly. He further stated that if the proposal is passed, the burden will ultimately fall on the banks’ customers.