play videoMajority Leader of Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu
Parliament approves E-Levy
Minority boycotts E-Levy
Minority challenges E-Levy approval in court
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has dared the minority side to pursue its legal challenge against the approval of the Electronic Transfers Levy.
According to the majority leader, members of the opposition are only exhibiting bad faith in resorting to a legal action despite participating in the E-Levy debates
"You people have been part of the process from day one and even made major contributions to it. Why do you want to all of a sudden make the public feel you are sympathetic to them and against the passage of the bill?" he rhetorically stated in an interview with Okay FM.
Acknowledging the minority’s decision to go to court over the matter, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu maintained that no rules guiding parliamentary procedure were breached in the process leading to the approval of the E-Levy.
"No one can stop you from going to court but I can assure you that you are going to be schooled again on the Standing Orders of the House if you have forgotten," he added.
"I can tell you that we did not breach any parliamentary procedure in the lead-up to the passage, we followed the parliamentary procedure and the Standing Order of the House," he stated.
A one-sided majority approved the second and third readings of the bill during its consideration after the minority side boycotted proceedings in the house on Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
The minority, after describing the approval process as null and void, have gone to file a suit at the Supreme Court demanding a declaration to that effect.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, one of three minority MPs who filed the suit in a Facebook post said, “Our lawyers have this morning, successfully commenced an action at the Supreme Court for reliefs which include a declaration that per Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution and on the authority of its recent decision in the Justice Abdulai case, the purported passage of the Electronic Transfer Bill, 2021 by 136 NPP MPs is null, void & of no effect.”
