Attorney General reacts to Supreme Court ruling on injunction application against E-Levy
Minority challenges passage of E-Levy
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has expressed joy about the ruling of the Apex Court that dismissed the injunction application brought before it by some three National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs on the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).
According to him, the ruling of the Supreme Court only re-affirms their arguments that the NDC MPs could not demonstrate any irregularities in the approval of the E-Levy.
“I’m fully satisfied with the court’s ruling, I’m content with the outcome and I’m happy that the observations that we made about the application has been affirmed by the court. It is very important to note that the court made a finding that really, nothing regular has been demonstrated by the applicant and so far as the proceedings in parliament in question were concerned, everything seemed regular and we have demonstrated same from the processes that we had filed,” he said.
In the court’s unanimous decision, which was determined by a seven-member panel of judges, it said the court was not satisfied with the application brought before it.
The panel also ruled that the Ghana Revenue Authority maintains records of proceeds obtained from the E-Levy since its implementation on May 1, 2022, pending the court’s final decision on the matter.
The justices who oversaw the case today at the Supreme Court included Justices Nene Amegatcher, Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, Avril Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkornoo, Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, and Yonny Kulendi.
Substantive case
In March 2022, the Minority Caucus in Parliament filed a suit to challenge the passage of the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) at the Supreme Court.
Haruna Iddrisu indicated that the passage was unconstitutional, as Parliament did not have the required numbers to make a decision on the E-Levy.
“The Majority of less than 137 conducting business only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should be binding on Parliament and Ghanaians.”
“I think they have to come again on E-levy because as of today, I don’t think they had the numbers to say that the E-levy has been passed. We will question this decision in [the Supreme] court on the basis of the earlier ruling and on the basis of the fact that they said we can’t make a decision with 137 [members], but they can take with 137,” he told the media at a press conference.
This was after the Minority boycotted the consideration of the E-Levy at the second and third reading stages.
The bill was however passed by the Majority caucus in Parliament.
