The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has dismissed reports suggesting that the Federal Government has suspended the issuance of implementation guidelines for Nigeria’s new tax laws due to uncertainty over their final versions.
Oyedele debunked the claim via a post on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle, where he shared a screenshot of the circulating media report and boldly labelled it “Fake News.”
The disputed report alleged that the Bola Tinubu-led administration had halted the rollout of implementation guidelines, quoting Oyedele as having instructed the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Joint Revenue Board (JRB) to pause action because the definitive version of the tax laws was unclear.
According to the report, the comments were allegedly made by Oyedele in Lagos on Tuesday after he delivered a keynote address at the 2026 Economic Outlook event organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), themed “ICAN@60: Accountability as the Bedrock for National Development.”
At the event, Oyedele acknowledged that concerns had been raised over the authenticity of the versions of the tax laws currently in circulation, explaining that this prompted efforts to verify the officially authenticated copies.
“The Acts Authentication Act says whatever the Government Printer publishes is the evidence of the law that was passed,” Oyedele said.
He explained that while the Government Printer initially released a version regarded by the executive as official, members of the National Assembly later disputed it, insisting that it did not reflect what was passed by the legislature.
Oyedele added that lawmakers subsequently conducted their own review and produced separate gazetted versions, which were circulated in soft copy format.
However, he disclosed that his team was unable to obtain printed copies from the Government Printer, as officials reportedly stated that all printed versions had been taken by the National Assembly and would not be released to the public until the legislative review process was concluded.
“So, I also told everybody — the NRS, JRB — to wait, because we cannot issue guidelines. We are not 100 per cent certain that this is the final official position,” he said.
Oyedele noted that while legislative review of laws is a normal process, the restriction on access to the officially authenticated documents has reintroduced uncertainty into the tax reform implementation process, contrary to claims that the government had formally suspended the guidelines.
