The Supreme Court has dismissed an application for injunction filed by three Members of Parliament against the implementation of the Electronic Transaction levy (E-levy).
A seven-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Justice Nene Amegatcher, today, May 4, 2022 dismissed the application for interlocutory injunction filed by the three MPs which include the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga and the MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
Justice Amegatcher in his judgement stated that the nature of the relief sought by the three Minority members were null and void. He further indicated that stopping the E-Levy would be detrimental to the government.
“Greater hardships will be caused to the state in meeting its developmental obligation to the people. The balance of hardship tilts in favor of the respondent.”
Justice Amegatcher
The Supreme Court was of the view that an injunction on the E-Levy would deprive government the needed revenue which “would be lost” for the period that the case will be in court. The court also ordered the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) to ensure it keeps every record from the levy collection and not miss any transactional record as the implementation is in full effect now.
Supreme Court ruling, remarkable
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, stated that the ruling was very remarkable and indicated that with such cases, all claims made are supposed to be based on firm evidence. “You do not go to court with a bundle of speculations and conjecture as the court stated in its ruling in reference to one of the claims by one of the applicants in court.“
“The record of Parliament that day, that is, 29th March showed that six [Minority] members of Parliament were present when the question was put before the approval of the E-levy Bill and the motion was agreed. As per the records, there was no indication that there was a division or a head count and for that matter, only one of the members of the Minority was present in Parliament.”
Godfred Dame
According to the Attorney General, there were no irregularities in the approval of the E-levy Bill as records available in Parliament indicated that the required number of MPs were present as at the time the E-levy was endorsed.
“We saw that clearly and we all saw how the applicants were not able to demonstrate any form of irregularity during the proceeds. So, I am very happy with the outcome.”
Godfred Dame
According to Godfred Dame, so far as parliamentary proceeds were concerned, everything seemed regular and has been demonstrated from the proceeds in court.
This ruling came after three Members of Parliament from the Minority on Tuesday April 19, 2022, filed an application at the apex court to block the commencement of the E-levy deductions. According to the Minority, the bill which was passed by Parliament on Tuesday, March 29, 2022 and has now been implemented, is punitive and amounts to double taxation.
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