The Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has said that the few changes made to Nigeria’s newly enacted tax laws would not have any major impact on their core provisions.
Oyedele made this assertion amid the controversy trailing the four tax reform laws that took effect on January 1, 2026, following allegations that the versions gazetted differed from those passed by the National Assembly.
The laws include the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, and the Nigeria Tax Act.
Concerns over the tax laws came to the fore in December during plenary at the House of Representatives when a lawmaker, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), raised a matter of privilege over what he described as discrepancies between the laws passed by lawmakers and the versions gazetted and released to the public.
Rising under Order Six, Rule Two of the House Rules, Dasuki insisted that his legislative privilege had been breached, alleging that the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect what members debated, voted on, and approved.
According to him, a review of the gazetted copies alongside the Votes and Proceedings of the House and the harmonised version adopted by both chambers revealed noticeable differences.
“I was here, I gave my vote and it was counted, and I am seeing something completely different,” Dasuki said.
The allegation sparked renewed opposition to the tax reforms, with some opposition leaders calling on the Federal Government to suspend implementation from January 1.
However, the Federal Government maintained that the implementation timeline must stand.
Naijaonpoint reports that concerns over the alleged discrepancies were reinforced by the subsequent release of Certified True Copies of the Acts by the National Assembly.
The CTCs clearly outlined the provisions approved by lawmakers and served as authoritative evidence of what was transmitted for presidential assent.
On January 3, the House of Representatives released the CTCs of the four tax reform Acts signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following widespread concerns and the circulation of what were described as unauthorised versions.
The House spokesman, Akin Rotimi, in a statement, said the move was ordered by the Speaker of the House and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, after reports of multiple and conflicting versions of the laws in circulation.
‘No Change To Tax Rates Or Burden’
Speaking in Lagos on Wednesday, Oyedele sought to allay public fears, stressing that the reported changes did not affect the substance of the laws.
“What I’ll say to you is, the explanation we have provided about the law, because all this issue of they’ve altered, they’ve not altered, it’s not even a lot.
“There are few items that shouldn’t affect the main thing that people need to know — nothing about the tax rate, about the tax burden, the filing deadline,” Oyedele added.
He spoke shortly after delivering a keynote address at the 2026 Economic Outlook organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria as part of activities marking the institute’s 60th anniversary.
Oyedele also revealed that uncertainty surrounding the tax laws had been worsened by the unavailability of official printed copies, alleging that the National Assembly had taken custody of all printed versions.
According to him, his team was unable to purchase copies from the government printer after being informed that lawmakers had directed that the documents should not be sold or made available to the public pending the conclusion of their review.
While acknowledging that legislative review was a normal process, he warned that restricting access to the laws had reintroduced uncertainty into the tax reform programme.
“The Acts Authentication Act says whatever the government printer publishes is the evidence of the law that was passed,” Oyedele said.
“The government printer published something, which we said this is the official version. Lawmakers said it’s not what they passed.”
He explained that although lawmakers carried out their own review and produced their version, this contradicted the provisions of the Acts Authentication Act.
Oyedele disclosed that the uncertainty had forced his committee to suspend the issuance of guidelines on the new tax laws.
“So I also told everybody, the NRS, JRB, you to wait, because we cannot issue guidelines,” he said.
“We are not 100 per cent certain that this is the final official position.”
He added that his staff later confirmed that all printed copies produced by the government printer had been collected by the National Assembly.
“They said everything that they printed, the National Assembly collected from them and said they shouldn’t sell to anyone, that they want to complete their review. While that is good, it also creates the uncertainty again,” Oyedele said.
Despite the concerns, the tax reform committee chairman maintained that the core objectives and provisions of the laws remained intact and unaffected.