Executive Chairman of Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacchaeus Adedeji
Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has reaffirmed that low-income Nigerians are the biggest winners under the new tax laws signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, dismissing claims that the reforms place additional pressure on ordinary citizens.
Speaking on Sunday during an interview on Arise Television, the Executive Chairman of the NRS, Dr Zacchaeus Adedeji, said the reforms were carefully structured to shield the poor and reduce their cost-of-living challenges rather than worsen them.
Adedeji stressed that the government is not imposing new taxes on citizens, noting that the law contains wide-ranging exemptions deliberately targeted at vulnerable groups. According to him, over 95 per cent of poor Nigerians are fully exempted from the new tax regime.
He explained that one of the most impactful measures is the complete removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on food items, a decision he said directly benefits low-income households, as food takes up the bulk of their earnings.
> “We removed VAT totally from food items. The same thing applies to transportation, which also largely affects the poor,” Adedeji said.
He noted that food alone accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the disposable income of low-income earners, making the VAT exemption a major relief. When combined with other tax reliefs and exemptions, Adedeji said the overall effect of the reforms clearly favours the poor.
> “So if you look at the total and the net benefit, the poor are the most beneficiaries of this tax reform,” he stated.
Addressing public concerns and circulating claims about bank transfers, the NRS chairman dismissed such narratives as false and misleading.
> “No tax official will pry into your bank account to see who you transferred money to. Narratives about bank transfers are misinformation; there is nothing of the sort. We can only tax, return, profit and consumption,” Adedeji said.
He urged Nigerians to ignore what he described as misinformation and assured citizens that the reforms are designed to promote fairness while protecting those at the lower end of the income ladder.
