As Nigeria prepares for the January 1, 2026 commencement of its new tax regime, controversies have erupted over alleged discrepancies between the versions of the 2025 Tax Laws passed by the National Assembly and the final gazetted copies.
Critics have argued that certain provisions were altered without proper legislative approval, raising fears among businesses and ordinary Nigerians.
DDM gathered that Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has publicly refuted claims suggesting that the committee worked with a different version of the bill than what was passed.
Oyedele emphasized that misinformation has fueled unnecessary panic and misrepresented the rigorous processes behind the legislation.
Oyedele explained that his committee, comprising over a hundred experts, worked meticulously over two and a half years to draft the bills and ensure the tax framework addressed the nation’s fiscal challenges.
He said the committee’s focus was on harmonizing policy issues such as reducing business taxes, eliminating burdens on low-income earners, and safeguarding tax harmonization objectives before presenting the bills to the President.
He noted that after the bills were transmitted to the National Assembly, the House and Senate Committees on Finance carried out detailed reviews and harmonization.
Oyedele’s role was to confirm that no substantial policy changes had been made during these stages that would require withholding presidential assent.
The tax chief also addressed the issue of disputed sections, such as Sections 25 and 26 of the Nigerian Revenue Service Act. He clarified that the official harmonized copy sent to the President has not been made publicly available, making it impossible to compare with circulated drafts. Oyedele stressed that much of the reporting about discrepancies stems from preliminary drafts, some of which were mistakenly released before proper editing and formatting, including Section 41(8), which required a 20 percent deposit on disputed tax assessments but was not in the final gazette.
Oyedele warned that claims of deliberate changes without legislative approval were largely false and urged Nigerians to allow official investigations by lawmakers to determine if any substantive alterations occurred. He framed the issue as a procedural challenge rather than a conflict between the executive and legislative branches, pointing to multiple manual hand-offs during drafting, harmonization, presidential assent, and gazetting that could produce apparent inconsistencies.
He reiterated that the final version, duly gazetted, reflected the intended policy objectives and called on citizens and media organizations to avoid spreading unverified reports. Oyedele concluded that the law remains designed to ease the tax burden on ordinary Nigerians, and any remaining questions should be addressed through formal legislative channels rather than speculation.
The clarification comes amid nationwide debates about the fairness, transparency, and implementation of Nigeria’s 2025 Tax Laws, with businesses, civil society groups, and political actors closely monitoring developments in the lead-up to the new fiscal year.