By Kayode Olopade
Amid mounting public anxiety over Nigeria’s ongoing tax reforms, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has firmly dismissed widespread claims that the government plans to deduct money directly from citizens’ bank accounts, describing the reports as false, misleading and potentially destabilising to the economy.
Oyedele gave the assurance yesterday while speaking at a media workshop on the newly consolidated tax law, where he addressed concerns triggered by viral social media posts warning Nigerians to empty their bank accounts to avoid alleged deductions by government agencies.
“Let me be very clear: nobody — not the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), not the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), not any government agency — has the power to debit your bank account,” Oyedele said. “Whether you have ₦50,000 or ₦50 million, nobody is coming to take money from your account. That claim is simply not true.”
According to him, the misconception arose from the recent consolidation of existing tax laws into a single code, which many wrongly interpreted as the introduction of fresh enforcement powers.
He explained that the only legal pathway for recovering unpaid taxes remains a court-ordered garnishee process, which he described as lengthy, strictly regulated and rarely used.
“Even where someone owes hundreds of millions of naira and refuses to pay, the government cannot just wake up and remove money from an account,” he said. “There must be an assessment, notification, opportunity to object, conclusion of the process, and ultimately a court order. Without a judge’s approval, nobody can touch your money.”
Oyedele, who has spent nearly three decades in tax administration, said he had never witnessed a single instance where funds were removed from a bank account without due judicial process.
He recalled a previous attempt under former FIRS Chairman, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, to introduce post-no-debit orders on accounts suspected of tax evasion, noting that the move failed and recovered no revenue.
“That process created unnecessary panic and did not succeed,” he said. “Nobody is going back to that.”
Addressing concerns that banks would begin reporting all customer transactions to tax authorities, Oyedele clarified that such provisions are not new.
He noted that since the 2020 Finance Act, bank accounts used for business have been required to be linked to a Tax Identification Number (TIN).
However, under the new reform, the transaction reporting threshold has been raised from ₦10 million to ₦25 million, meaning that only accounts with transactions approaching ₦100 million annually would trigger reporting.
“NIBSS data shows that 98 per cent of bank accounts in Nigeria have less than ₦500,000,” he said. “Those accounts will never be reported. This provision has existed for five years.”
Oyedele warned that the spread of misinformation could provoke panic withdrawals capable of destabilising the financial system
“One of the fastest ways to damage an economy is for people to rush to withdraw their money out of fear,” he cautioned. “There is nothing in the law that authorises the government to debit bank accounts. Nigerians should not create a crisis where none exists.”
He stressed that the overarching goal of the tax reforms is to simplify compliance, reduce multiple taxation, expand the tax base, and ease the burden on households and small businesses.
“This reform is not designed to punish anyone,” Oyedele said. “It is about making the system fairer, simpler, and more supportive of economic recovery.”
He added that the committee is collaborating with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to roll out digital explainers and translations of the new tax law in major Nigerian languages to deepen public understanding.
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