Deputy Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for the Awutu Senya Constituency, Alex Afenyo Markin has intimated that the NDC’s challenge of the passing of the e-levy at the Supreme Court is “dead on arrival.”
Speaking to Evans Mensah on JoyNews’ NewsNight, Mr. Afenyo Markin stated that the opposition party took the decision in bad faith.
“They are members of Parliament who know that one of their bona fides, if they see a supposed illegality in Parliament, is to make an application, invoking the rules of Parliament for that supposed illegality to be reversed, you don’t rush to the Supreme Court,” he stressed.
The Minority on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, gave an indication to contest the decision at the Supreme Court. The decision was announced shortly after the passing of the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) without their participation. .
Subsequently, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, and his colleagues; Mahama Ayariga and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have dragged the Attorney-General to the Supreme Court over the approval of the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy).
They contend that Parliament did not have the required number of at least, half of its members present when the controversial tax policy was approved. They, thus, want the Supreme Court to declare that the said approval was contrary to law.
Mr Afenyo Markin opined that the case will be nullified since the NDC MPs did not exhaust all internal options available to them to seek redress before invoking the jurisdiction of the Apex Court.
Reacting to the opposition party’s claim on lack of a quorum, he noted that the Minority should have drawn the Speaker’s attention to the supposed lack of quorum.
“When there is always a presumption of regularity, why didn’t one of them stay in to raise the issue of quorum?”
“That notwithstanding, as colleagues we are ready to sit and debate in the chamber. Let’s raise and discuss the issues. If the Speaker rules and they are not happy with the Speaker’s ruling, then they can escalate,” he added.
“But for the time being, I can tell you that any preliminary objection raised on the want of jurisdiction, they have hurried to court and the court will not entertain them, because they are supposed to exhaust all internal measures before invoking the jurisdiction of the case,” he maintained.