BREAKING: Few changes shouldn’t affect tax laws – FG

The few changes made to the newly passed tax laws will not have any major effect, according to Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee.

Daily Trust reports that controversy has been trailing the four laws, which took effect on January 1.

They laws are: the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act and the Nigeria Tax Act.

The controversy stemmed from the alleged alterations to the gazetted laws as against the versions passed by the National Assembly.

At the House of Representatives’ plenary in December, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto) raised a matter of privilege, alleging discrepancies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions gazetted and made available to the public.

Rising under Order Six, Rule Two of the House Rules, Dasuki said his legislative privilege had been breached, insisting that the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect what members debated, voted on and passed.

He said after spending the past three days to carefully review the gazetted copies alongside the Votes and Proceedings of the House as well as the harmonised version adopted by both chambers, he observed discrepancies.

“I was here, I gave my vote and it was counted, and I am seeing something completely different,” the lawmaker said.

This led to a fresh groundswell of opposition against the new laws with many opposition leaders calling for the suspension of the implementation on January 1.

But the Federal Government insisted that the implementation must take effect.

Daily Trust reports that concerns raised over discrepancies between newly gazetted tax reform laws and the versions passed by the National Assembly were later reinforced by the release of Certified True Copies (CTCs) by the NASS.

The CTCs set out in clear terms the provisions approved by lawmakers and provide authoritative documentary evidence of what was transmitted for presidential assent.

The House of Representatives, on January 3, released the CTCs of four tax reform Acts recently signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following public concerns over alleged alterations and the circulation of unauthorised versions of the laws.

House spokesman, Akin Rotimi, who disclosed this in a statement, said the release was ordered by the Speaker of the House and Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

He said the decision followed reports that multiple and conflicting versions of the tax laws were in circulation.

Speaking in Lagos on Wednesday, Oyedele downplayed the impact of any changes, saying they do not affect the core provisions of the legislation.

“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, nothing about the tax rate, about the tax burden, the filing deadline. So, but this is the best I can say to you, as we speak,” he said while responding to questions shortly after he delivered a keynote address at the 2026 Economic Outlook organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) as part of the activities marking the 60th anniversary of the institute.

Oyedele alleged that the National Assembly had collected the printed copies of the tax laws, thereby fuelling uncertainty.

He said he instructed his team to buy a printed copy of the law from the government printer but the feedback from his staff revealed that the National Assembly had taken custody of all printed copies of the tax laws and directed that they should not be sold or made available to the public until lawmakers conclude their review.

While acknowledging that legislative review is a normal part of the lawmaking process, Oyedele noted that the restriction on access has reintroduced uncertainty into the tax reform process.

He said, “The Acts Authentication Act says whatever the government printer publishes is the evidence of the law that was passed. That government printer published something, which we said this is the official version. Lawmakers said it’s not what they passed. So they said they would do their own gazettes.

“They set up their committee, they did their own review, they did their own gazette. They sent me a copy, soft copy. But that’s not what the Acts Authentication Act says.

“So I sent my staff, go to government printer and go and buy. They went there, as of last week, they said it’s not ready. That they should wait.

“So, I also told everybody, the NRS, JRB, you to wait, because we cannot issue guidelines.

“We are not 100% certain that this is the final official position. I called my staff this morning, I said go back there, be following up every day, go, go there, don’t call them, go and sit down there.

“And I got feedback as I was here that says that, I don’t even know whether I should say this or not, because I don’t know what the press will report. But in the interest of accountability and transparency, so my staff told me that 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.”

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