E-Levy: Minority going to court after President’s assent may be too late but…-CPP

Accra, April 27, GNA – Ms Nana Yaa Jantuah, General Secretary of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), said the Minority in Parliament going to the Supreme Court to file an injunction against the implementation of the electronic transfer levy (E-levy) may be too late an action to take.

Even though Ms Yaa Jantuah admitted not knowing the legal ramification after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had assented to the E-Levy to become a law, she said the Minority in Parliament should have taken the action when it was being tabled for discussion on the floor of Parliament.

Ms Jantuah in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said that the legal consequence of the action taken by the Minority in Parliament was not easily predictable after the E-Levy had been signed into law.

“I am not a lawyer but I believe that the Minority should have done whatever they wanted to do when the E-Levy was being tabled. I can interpret some laws but this one, I don’t know the ramification when the President himself had assented to it”, she pointed out

She, however, described the E-Levy as a ‘punitive tax’ that should not have been passed into law.

“…already, the E-Levy itself is a punitive tax because I have paid my tax and you as a worker have paid your tax. Even if I am paying an informal worker who works by the day, that person’s money would be passed through MoMo and as I am going to send the money to the person, it is being taxed and so I have to add extra cash to make the person receive the absolute money”, she explained.

She said inasmuch as the E-Levy had become a law, Ghanaians would abide by it but added that there should be a mechanism in place to ensure that the law benefited everyone.

GNA