The Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee has denied reports that Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of State for Finance, admitted that Nigeria’s new tax laws were wrong. They called these claims false and misleading.
Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of State for Finance, made the clarification in a statement he posted on his X account on Sunday.
The statement said, “We have been made aware of false media reports that say the Honorable Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has “finally admitted mistakes in the new tax laws.”
“These articles misrepresent what the Minister said by falsely claiming that he told Nigerians to wait for the results of a “legislative probe,” which has been over for a long time and the National Assembly has published certified copies of the gazetted copies since early January 2026.
“This twisted story doesn’t help because it could change how people understand the situation and lead the people the reforms were meant to help to believe something else.
“The minister talked about the early positive effects of the new tax laws during a recent fireside chat at the NBA SLP conference in Lagos. For example, thousands of informal businesses are now applying for CAC registration every day, and the number of people registered for tax purposes across the country has grown from fewer than 10 million before the reform to more than 100 million.
“The strong design and forward-thinking nature of the new laws, which include tax breaks for small businesses, are what led to these great results. Higher exemption limits for people with low incomes. No taxes on basic goods and services like food, school, health care, transportation, and rent. The Tax Ombud was created to protect the rights of taxpayers.
“The Minister compared the new laws, which will bring about big changes, with the old laws, which will bring about changes that go backwards.” He did, however, stress that no law is perfect.
So, ongoing stakeholder engagement is important to find and fix any mistakes or gaps that need to be fixed through Finance Bills as part of a process of continuous improvement.
“We urge the public to ignore sensational headlines and twisted stories and only trust official sources and trustworthy media outlets for accurate information about tax reform and other government policies.”
