Gov’t Cannot Go Ahead With E-levy; Minority Says After Filing Interlocutory Injunction

The minority in Parliament has affirmed that the government of Ghana cannot continue with the implementation of the Electronic Transfers Levy (E-levy) on May 1, 2022.

This is because of the “successful” application for an interlocutory injunction against the implementation of the E-levy- a 1.5% levy on all electronic transactions- scheduled to begin next month, the NDC said.

“Once we have filed the application and we have served the parties, I am advised by my lawyers that it serves as a stay and so government cannot go ahead on the 1st of May to implement this unconstitutional E-levy”, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, one of the applicants for the motion said in an interview on Eyewitness News monitored by opemsuo.com.

The three plaintiffs who filed for the motion also included the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu and Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga.

According to the Minority in Parliament, the passage of the E-levy by Parliament was done unconstitutionally.

“The substantive case is premised on the fact that as the Supreme court has held in the Abdulai case that 138 Members of Parliament is the decision-making threshold. On the day we staged our walk-out, we had only 136 MPs on the NPP side of the House. Remember that on the 26th of November, when 137 NDC MPs purported to have rejected the 2022 budget, the Supreme Court held that that cannot hold and we needed 138. If 137 cannot make a decision, an inferior number of 136 cannot purport to have taken a decision on the E-levy”, representative of the North Tongu constituency in Parliament, Ablakwa said.

The case will be heard for the first time on May 4, it is confirmed.

The plaintiffs filed the motion at the Supreme Court yesterday, April 19, 2022.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini