Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has stated that the ongoing tax reform process is not a kneejerk approach to the economy but a campaign promise of President Bola Tinubu.
Adedeji said the tax reform is a necessary response to what he described as a fragmented tax system that could not sustain the level of development the President envisaged.
He stated this in an interview on Arise Television where he emphasised that the reform was for the interest of the poor, but was being frustrated by some persons.
“Tax reform is one of the promises made by Mr President from his inaugural speech. From the beginning, he made it his point of duty that we need to start early to reform the tax system, which is the real foundation for any sustainable economy in the world,” the NRS boss stated.
He recalled that the President set up a committee headed by Taiwo Oyedele, which, according to him, spent a year consulting stakeholders and preparing recommendations that were then processed by the National Assembly through public hearings and regional engagements before the President assented to the bill in June 2024.
Adedeji called on security agencies to be on alert over planned nationwide protests against the new tax law
“I’m using this time to call all the security agencies to be on alert,” he stated.
Continuing, he said, “These are the people… that just want to frustrate the benefit of this reform,” Adedeji stated.
He noted that those pushing anti-tax agitations are unpatriotic elements determined to derail the country’s fiscal reforms.
“Those people you see promoting all this rumour, all this misinformation are those people that are avoiding taxes, that there is no way out for, based on the digitalisation that we brought on board,” he added.
The NRS chairman also dismissed as baseless, claims by some lawmakers and commentators that the gazetted version of the Nigeria Tax Administration and Other Matters Act differed from what was passed by the National Assembly.
“No, like I said earlier, I don’t want to delve into those rumours. For example, all these comparisons that you are mentioning now, honestly, I don’t know where you find them because nobody, except the National Assembly, has the right to the vote book. They are the ones to give us the gazetted law as passed, which… they’ve released… as passed, which is the only thing we have,” he stated.
Adedeji insisted that the only document relevant to the NRS is the gazetted Act transmitted by the legislature.
“I don’t even need to see the harmonised bill. I don’t need to see any of those things. The only thing I need to see is the gazetted bill, which they have given to me. All these processes are internal processes of the National Assembly, which is purely a separation of powers,” he added.
Adedeji emphasised that the tax authorities had no role in altering any legislation and said the executive had “no place in the law” to tamper with bills passed by parliament.
He also clarified that while the law took effect from June, some rate changes were delayed to give companies time to adjust.
“In one summary, the whole essence of reform is to tax right, not tax more. We just want to tax right, fairness, transparency, and then consolidate the whole system in order to simplify and unify the process of revenue administration,” he added.
He said the administration would focus on taxing profits and prosperity rather than capital and poverty, insisting that the poor are the biggest beneficiaries of the reform due to exemptions on basic consumption.
“If you look at all the exemptions, you will discover that more than 95 per cent of the poor are totally exempted. Imagine that we remove VAT on all food items… The same thing on transportation… So if you look at the total and the net benefit, the poor are the most beneficiaries of this tax reform.”
On complaints that bank transfer charges and VAT deductions are rising, he said many of the grievances blamed on the federal reform are either bank charges or state-level personal income taxes, adding that the NRS mainly administers company taxes.
