The Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr. Zacch Adedeji, has clarified that the new tax laws, which took effect in January 2026, do not give the government or any institution the power to debit personal bank accounts.
Adedeji made the clarification on Tuesday while speaking on Journalists’ Hangout, a program aired on TVC, amid growing public concern over the implementation of the new tax regime.
According to him, the country’s tax authorities are not interested in transaction narrations in individual bank accounts, stressing that personal transfers have nothing to do with taxation.
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“If you transfer money from your account to your brother, that is a personal transaction between both of you.
“It has nothing to do with the tax authority, whether at the state or federal level,” Adedeji said.
He further explained that neither the old tax laws nor the newly enacted ones empower any agency to access personal accounts or instruct banks to debit individuals based on account activity or narration.
“There’s no such provision in any tax act. Whether you describe it or you don’t put any description, tax law—both the old law and the new law—has not given anybody any right to come into your personal account and tax you or instruct the bank to debit you,” he added.
Adedeji also noted that workers in the lower salary cadre would experience a reduction in the amount of tax deducted from their January salaries under the new law.
He dismissed widespread claims about the new tax regime as rumors and misinformation.
“You can see now that we are on the 13th of January. All those myths—you can see that those things were nowhere to be found,” he said.
He assured that the impact of the new law would become evident when salaries are paid at the end of the month.
“By the time salaries are paid at the end of January, the lower-cadre salary earner will confirm the difference compared to what they paid under the old law,” Adedeji stated.
The NRS boss also rejected calls for the suspension of the new tax laws, insisting that such demands have no place in a democratic system.
“The suspension of law has no place in a democratic setting. Once a law is passed, it becomes law,” he said.
His remarks come amid calls by the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who had urged the federal government to suspend the implementation of the new tax laws, citing alleged flaws and the potential burden on Nigerians.
Culled from DailyPost
