The Minority group in Parliament has served notice it will challenge passage of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) at the Supreme Court and described what happened in the Chamber on Tuesday as a charade.
According to the Caucus, the House did not have quorum at the time of approval of the levy and therefore what happened was illegality and unconstitutional business as contained in Article 104 and as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
Parliament approved the controversial E-Levy) Bill on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, after the Minority staged a bizarre walkout during the Second Reading.
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu spoke to the media and indicated approval of the E-levy is a charade because there is a judicial determination on what constitutes a voting quorum.
He said, “The Supreme Court drew its own distinction between what they called a general quorum or a typical quorum and a voting quorum, and the voting quorum is the decision quorum.”
“We are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Parliament did not have the numbers to make a decision that should be binding on Parliament and binding on the Ghanaian people.”
He stated what Parliament was purported to have done and led by the Majority group with less than 137 members only amounted to a charade of approving of “a so-called E-levy; subjecting it to second reading, consideration, procedural amendment and third reading without the required numbers.”
“This Parliament guided by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Justice Abdullai versus the Attorney General, the 1992 Constitution, which is the source where all laws get their validity. the majority, following the walkout of the minority, did not constitute a voting quorum as required by article 104 of the 1992 constitution, and the lucid judgement of the Supreme Court in the justice Abdulai matter,” he stated.
According to him, the MP for Dome-Kwabenya was not present in Parliament while Ahanta West, Ebenezer Kojo Kum was purported to have been in an ambulance on the precinct of the House but was not in the Chamber.
He stressed that left136 majority MPs in the Chamber during approval of the levy and stressed every decision that was taken thereafter flies as a sin against the ruling of the Supreme Court.
Source: Mypublisher24.com