Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has urged Nigerians to hold off on speculating about alleged alterations to the country’s tax laws, describing recent claims as premature.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, regarding the alleged tax law alterations, Oyedele said, “I’ve seen that quite a bit in the past couple of days, that I said that the regulation in circulation is fake. That’s not what I said. What I said, because I was also granting an interview, and the reporter displayed a section of the law in the Gazette, and then the similar section in quote, in the harmonised version by the National Assembly, and was asking me whether that was indeed an alteration.
“Before then, I’d seen these reports about all these sections that they claim were altered substantially, and the report was giving the impression that this was a report of the House of Representatives Committee investigating the matter. So I saw one of the sections and I knew that was not in the Gazette, and they claimed it was in the Gazette. So I called one of the lawmakers in the committee, and I said, just to clarify to you, this, your report, you reference something that does not exist. And the guy said they haven’t even met. So apparently, some people decided to write what alterations they thought were made, and it didn’t come from the committee investigating it. Some people have done graphic design on top of it.
“So my response was, I don’t think that it would be productive to start discussing alleged alterations that we don’t know where it came from, and certainly not from the House Committee. And then, some people reported it as me saying that the Gazette in circulation was fake. That’s not what I said.”
Oyedele also noted an example often cited by critics, relating to a supposed requirement for taxpayers to pay a 20% deposit before filing an appeal. According to Oyedele, this provision does not exist in the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, underscoring his call for caution.
He therefore emphasised the importance of allowing the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee to complete its probe before drawing conclusions, warning that public speculation based on unverified information could be misleading.
“Now, number two issue is, those things that they listed, and one of them I can show you here, is about saying that you have to pay a deposit of 20% if you want to go to appeal. And that’s under the Nigeria Tax Administration Acts, section 41, subsection 8. That’s what they’ve been quoting.
“So this is the Nigeria Tax Administration Acts, section 41, sub 8. If you read it, you will not find it there. So my view is, we should allow the lawmakers to do their investigation, and come up with what they consider to be an alteration that is substantial, and then they make the decision as to what to do subsequently, rather than trying to speculate and discussing things that we’re not even sure where those things came from.”
Melissa Enoch
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