Top NDC members 'chase' Akufo-Addo for assenting to E-Levy amid Supreme Court challenge

Parliament passes E-Levy

Minority MPs stage a walkout

President Akufo-Addo assents to Bill

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the Electronic Transfer (E-Levy) Bill on March 31, two days after a one-sided Parliament approved it.

The Minority staged a walkout in protest citing the further burden that the 1.50% tax measure will impose on Ghanaians.



Read full article/> Three Minority MPs subsequently filed a challenge over the passage at the Supreme Court, invoking the apex court to declare the approval as a nullity because the House was not properly constituted before the vote.

Akufo-Addo assented to the Bill about 24-hours after the case was filed in the apex court.

Since then, a number of National Democratic Congress, NDC, members within and outside of Parliament have criticised the decision to assent to a Bill that was the subject of a legal challenge at the apex court.



Below are the views of some top NDC members:

James Agalga

Speaking to JoyNews on The Pulse shortly after the President signed the bill into law, James Agalga, MP for Builsa North said the President's action amounted to 'an act of prejudice and compromise to the work of the Supreme Court.'

“It is a bad practice for the President who knows that the court must be allowed to do their work without any form of interference, to do such a thing. He knows that following the alleged practice of approving the Bill, alleged because we walked out…

"We withdrew from the House and you know that the numbers from the Majority side were not more than 136…Why is the President in this kind of haste to give assent to the Bill into law, the passage of which has been seriously contested at the Supreme Court,” he asked.

A.B.A. Fuseini

On his part, Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, A.B.A. Fuseini, averred that the President breached the laws of Ghana by approving a bill that is being contended in Court

“If it is true that the President has approved the bill, then he has breached the laws of this country. As it stands, we still believe the E-levy has not been passed.

"We are contending the passage of the bill in Court and we expect the court to tell the President in plain language that he has breached the law”, ABA Fuseini said on Accra-based Atinka FM.

Abraham Amaliba

Abraham Amaliba, a member of the NDC's legal team, while making submissions on the New Day show on TV3 on Friday, April 1, said “The action of the President has put undue pressure on the justices of the Supreme Court.

"He was reckless in doing that because he was aware there is a case in the Supreme Court. His act is not illegal but his action, is it desirable? He is going to put undue pressure on the judges,” he stressed.

March 29 – E-Levy Bill passed

The E-Levy was first announced to Ghanaians in November 2021, it generated heated exchange in Parliament when MPs met to vote on it late last year.

Three months on, it was passed on Tuesday, March 29, 2022; after it was tabled under a certificate of urgency. The Minority side after debating the second reading staged a walkout for the reason that they did not want to have anything to do with the Bill.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta proposed a number of amendments to the Bill, with the most significant one being the lowering of the E-Levy rate from 1.75% to 1.50%.

March 31 – Akufo-Addo assents to E-Levy Bill

Two days after its passage by a one-sided Parliament, the Bill was signed into law by President Akufo-Addo who had a day prior, thanked lawmakers for accepting to approve it.