The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has broken his silence on the ongoing controversy over claims that the recently enacted tax reform laws, scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, were secretly altered after their passage by the National Assembly.
This follows demands by civil society organisations and lawmakers for an independent probe into the alleged discrepancies.
Opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have raised concerns over the allegations and called for the suspension of the laws’ implementation.
The controversy intensified last week when a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, alleged discrepancies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions later gazetted and released to the public.
Dasuki argued that the differences amounted to a breach of lawmakers’ legislative rights, insisting that the gazetted versions did not reflect what was debated and approved on the floor of the House.
However, during an appearance on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Oyedele dismissed the claims circulating in the media as false.
“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,” Oyedele 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 was sent.
“It should be the House of Representatives or Senate version. It should be the harmonised version certified by the clerk. Even I cannot say that I have it. I only have what was presented to Mr President to sign,” he added.
According to Oyedele, he contacted the House of Representatives committee over a controversial provision, Section 41(8), which reportedly required the payment of a 20 per cent deposit.
“I know that particular provision is not in the final gazette, but it was in the draft gazette. Some people decided they should write the report of the committee before the committee had met, and it circulated everywhere,” he said.
The tax expert noted that the committee informed him it had not met on the issue.
“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 to do the investigation,” Oyedele added.
President Bola Tinubu recently signed four tax reform bills into law, a move the Federal Government describes as the most far-reaching overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system in decades.
The new laws—the Nigeria Tax Act, Nigeria Tax Administration Act, Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act—will operate under a unified authority, the Nigeria Revenue Service.
Despite resistance from some federal lawmakers, particularly from the northern region, the reforms are intended to simplify tax compliance, broaden the tax base, eliminate multiple taxation, and modernise revenue collection across federal, state, and local governments.
