The Federal Government on Friday insisted it would proceed with the January 1, 2026, implementation of the Nigeria Tax Act and Tax Administration Act despite ongoing controversy over alleged alterations in the gazetted versions of the laws.
Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, made the position known after briefing President Bola Tinubu in Lagos, declaring that the reforms are designed to provide relief to Nigerians rather than generate immediate revenue.
“The plan to commence the new law, the two remaining new laws on the first of January 2026, will go ahead as planned, on schedule, because these reforms are designed to provide relief to the Nigerian people,” Oyedele told journalists.
His stance came hours after the National Assembly ordered the re-gazetting of the four tax reform laws following public outcry over alleged discrepancies between what lawmakers passed and the versions published in the Official Gazette.
Oyedele emphasised that the reforms would significantly reduce the tax burden on the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.
“Bottom 98 per cent of workers will see either no pay tax or lower taxes to be paid.
“Small businesses, 97 per cent of them, will be exempted from corporate income tax, VAT, withholding tax, and large businesses will see a drop in the taxes that they paid,” he stated.
The committee chairman explained that the reforms aim “to try and promote economic growth, inclusivity as well as shared prosperity for our people.”
“So we are actually excited about the progress we’re making, and we’re looking forward to January 1, 2026,” Oyedele added.
Responding to questions about implementation readiness, Oyedele said the government has been preparing for nine months since the bills were first submitted to the National Assembly in October 2024.
“The tax reform bills were at the National Assembly for nine months, from October 2024, until June 2025, and that for us, preparation started from day one, and since the laws were signed, we’ve also had now about six months in which we’ve been doing preparation, capacity building, system upgrade and sensitization,” he explained.
He acknowledged that such reforms are “work in progress” and noted, “You never get to perfection. You get better as you go along. So we believe that we are at a point already.”
Oyedele revealed that two of the four tax laws, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Act and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Act, commenced on June 26, 2025, to enable those institutions to prepare for full implementation.
“You can’t set up that office on day one, and it begins to work on day one.
“So all of this combined, like I said, professionals, organized, private sector, this is why we continue with the engagement that we have been doing.
“And we believe that we are in a good state to be able to commence the implementation,” he stated.
When asked about expected revenue from the reforms, Oyedele clarified that immediate revenue generation is not the objective.
“The plan, the intention for this tax reform, is not immediate revenue generation.
“We believe that over time, you get revenue from growth.
“When the economy is growing, people pay not because tax rate has gone up, but because the base has increased,” he explained.
He outlined three ways the reforms would eventually increase revenue: economic growth expanding the tax base, rationalisation of wasteful and distortionary incentives, and improved compliance through increased awareness of tax culture.
“If people that were not paying before start paying, and they’re not people who are low-income earners, not only do you get more revenue, you get fairness for society,” Oyedele added.
The implementation plan comes amid growing controversy over alleged alterations to the tax laws after they were passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President Tinubu on June 26, 2025.
In early December, Rep. Abdussamad Dasuki from Sokoto State raised the alarm during plenary that the tax reform Acts passed by parliament “differed materially from copies in circulation at the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation.”
Dasuki warned that the alleged alterations posed “serious legal and constitutional risks,” noting they were “not backed by any constitutional framework and could threaten Nigeria’s democratic order.”
Specific concerns included alien provisions in the gazetted copies, such as coercive and fiscal powers including arrest powers, power to garnish without court order, compulsory USD computation, and appeal security deposits, that allegedly appeared without legislative approval.
On Friday, the National Assembly directed its Clerk to re-gazette the tax laws and issue Certified True Copies of the versions actually passed by both chambers.
House of Representatives spokesman Akin Rotimi, in a statement, said the directive was jointly issued by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas “in the interest of clarity, accuracy and the integrity of the legislative record.”
“This administrative step is intended solely to authenticate and accurately reflect the legislative decisions of the National Assembly,” Rotimi stated.
The House emphasised that “this review is strictly confined to institutional processes and procedures. It does not constitute, imply, or concede any defect in the exercise of legislative authority by the House of Representatives or the Senate.”
An Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Muktar Betara (APC, Borno) was established to investigate the allegations and reconstruct “the sequence of events” around the passage, presidential assent and gazetting of the laws.
