Taiwo Oyedele Finally Admits Errors In New Tax Laws

Taiwo Oyedele, Minister of State for Finance, has acknowledged that Nigeria’s new tax reform laws contain errors, assuring that corrective measures are already underway to address the identified issues. Oyedele made the disclosure while speaking during a fireside chat at the 2026 annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Legal Practice, themed “From Policy to Practice: Making Sense of Nigeria’s New Tax Reforms.” According to a statement from the Fiscal Reforms Committee, he admitted that inconsistencies emerged during the law-making process due to procedural lapses. Oyedele urged Nigerians to await the outcome of the legislative probe into the alleged discrepancies. In a social media post on Friday, the Fiscal Reforms Committee said the minister acknowledged “that errors occurred due to manual processes and multiple stages of review” in the drafting and legislative process. He, however, assured that the issues would be addressed through a proposed Finance Bill aimed at making corrections. “What we need is a more transparent and reliable legislative process where every version of a law is publicly available,” he said. Oyedele stressed that enforcement of the tax reforms would not be arbitrary, noting that the policy was anchored on transparency, fairness, and clear intent. He also emphasised the need to understand the rationale behind tax laws rather than focusing only on their provisions, arguing that policy intent should guide interpretation and implementation. The minister highlighted inconsistencies in Nigeria’s previous tax regime, particularly disparities between personal and corporate taxation, which he said discouraged business formalisation. According to him, the new reforms are designed to encourage formalisation of businesses, improve policy consistency, and reduce discretionary practices in tax administration. Reflecting on past policy shifts, he noted that inconsistent tax proposals had previously affected investor confidence. “If policies can change overnight, it sends the wrong signal to investors. Consistency is critical,” he said. On equity in taxation, Oyedele said the new framework protects low-income earners and small businesses, stressing that those earning about N1 million annually and millions of small enterprises should not be overburdened. “Nearly half of working Nigerians earn less than N70,000 monthly. Taxing them aggressively would be unjust,” he said. He added that the reforms also remove minimum tax requirements for loss-making businesses, describing the previous approach as taxing capital instead of profit. Oyedele further called for improved efficiency in revenue utilisation, noting that Nigeria still lags behind countries like South Africa in tax collection performance. Daily Trust reports that the development follows concerns raised over alleged discrepancies in the gazetted version of the tax laws and those passed by the National Assembly. On December 17, 2025, Abdussamad Dasuki, a member of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State, had alleged that the versions of the tax laws in circulation differed from what lawmakers passed. The claim triggered political and institutional tension, prompting the House to set up a special committee to review the discrepancies and reconcile the different versions.

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