Opposition leader Peter Obi called Tuesday for the government to halt the rollout of sweeping tax reforms, warning of drafting errors and policy gaps that could burden citizens already reeling from economic hardship, in a critique that drew a rebuttal from fiscal officials defending the measures.
Obi, the former presidential candidate for the Labour Party, highlighted a report by KPMG Nigeria identifying 31 “critical problem areas” in the new laws, including issues with share taxation, dividends, non-resident obligations, and foreign exchange deductions.
“If experts require closed-door discussions to navigate the complexities of our tax laws, what hope does the average Nigerian have of comprehending the obligations being imposed on them?” Obi said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
He lambasted the lack of public consultation, adding: “We have hastily pursued collection without securing a consensus and imposed enforcement without providing adequate explanations.”
Obi argued the regime, riddled with “inconsistencies and producing 31 alarming red flags from a leading global accounting firm,” lacked trust and clarity, concluding: “Nigeria cannot afford to place further burdens on its already struggling citizens.”
Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, countered that most KPMG concerns stemmed from “misunderstandings of policy objectives or disagreements with deliberate reform choices,” insisting in a Saturday response that “the bulk of the report mischaracterised the objectives and structure of the new tax framework.”
