An interlocutory injunction application being sought by the Minority in parliament on the operationalisation of e-levy pending the determination of a substantive case before the court has been unanimously dismissed.
The injunction application was dismissed by a 7 member panel of judges – Justices Nene Amegatcher, Nii Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, Avril Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkornoo, Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu and Yonny Kulendi.
Three Members of Parliament – Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; Mahama Ayariga, the MP for Bawku Central; and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the MP for North Tongu; demanded the Apex Court restrains the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) from implementing the E-Levy until the final determination of their suit challenging the constitutionality of its passage by Parliament.
The injunction application filed by their lawyer, Godwin Kudzo Tameklo, on April 19, 2022, “avers that millions of people will suffer irreparable harm if the E-Levy Act is not put on hold and the court determines that its passage was unconstitutional.”
According to the suit, GRA would be unable to reimburse the millions who would have paid the E-Levy while the 1992 constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, would have been undermined.
The Court, therefore, dismissed the application stating that, should the substantive case be heard and ruled unconstitutional, the GRA should keep an accurate record for reimbursement.
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In response to the ruling, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said he is satisfied with the Court’s directive to the GRA until the substantive case is determined.
The Tamale South MP described this part of the Supreme Court’s ruling as “refreshing and heartwarming.”
“At least some people will not be in a rush to collateralise it until the substantive matter is determined. We raised this matter because it is of public interest, constitutional significance,” he told the press after the ruling.
“We are very happy with the performance of our lawyers. We only pray that Ghana is not going to have two sets of laws. One that serves and protects the elected elite of government and one that serves the political minority of the opposition,” he added.