The Minority in Parliament, led by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has rejected the Bank of Ghana’s suspension of the proposed Bank-to-Wallet charge, arguing that a suspension is not a repeal.
Addressing Journalists on the issue, the Minority Leader said the BoG’s decision to put the charge on hold pending consultations amounts to a temporary pause, not a principled reversal. “A pause is not a principle,” he stated, warning that the government cannot be allowed to treat the suspension as a cooling-off period only to reintroduce the charge when public attention drops.
The Minority is demanding that, the Bank of Ghana permanently prohibit Bank-to-Wallet charges that are equivalent to the transaction levy, unless expressly authorized by Parliament.
The Attorney General issued a formal legal opinion on the constitutionality of imposing levy-equivalent charges that may bypass Article 174 of the Constitution, which vests taxing power in Parliament.
However, the Minority maintains that any charge resembling a tax must go through Parliamentary approval and cannot be introduced through regulatory directives.
