The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, says the January 1, 2026, date for the implementation of the Nigerian Tax Act and the Nigerian Tax Administration Act is sacrosanct.
Oyedele disclosed this on Friday in Lagos while briefing journalists after meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
“The plan to commence the new laws on January 1, 2026, will go ahead as planned on schedule because these reforms are designed to provide relief to the Nigerian people,” he said after the meeting, which was attended by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacchaeus Adedeji, and the Chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee, Joseph Tegbe.
“Bottom 98 per cent of workers will see either no Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax or lower taxes to be paid, small businesses 97 per cent of them will be exempted from Corporate Income Taxes, Value Added Tax (VAT), and Withholding Tax, and large businesses will see a drop in the taxes that they pay.
“The whole idea is to try and promote economic growth, inclusivity as well as shared prosperity for our people,” he added.
Oyedele welcomed the position of the National Assembly on the allegations about alteration. He said the Federal Government is ready to work with the federal lawmakers to address the concerns raised by Nigerians, including opposition figures.
Controversy trails new tax laws.
A member of the House of Representatives, Abdussamad Dasuki, recently raised concerns about what he described as discrepancies between tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions subsequently gazetted and made available to the public.
Dasuki argued that his legislative rights had been breached because the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect what lawmakers debated and approved on the floor of the House.
“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.”
Tinubu signed the four tax reform bills into law, marking what the government has described as the most significant overhaul of the country’s tax system in decades.
The tax reform laws, which faced stiff opposition from federal lawmakers from the northern part of the country before their passage, are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.
The laws include the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, all operating under a single authority, the Nigeria Revenue Service.
