A group calling itself Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers says the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation has no locus to impose a GH¢5 charge on persons who use the new app to self-register their SIM card.
In announcing an extension of the deadline in re-registering SIM cards, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on Sunday, July 31 said a new application will be made available for download within the week to enable many to self-register.
“The SIM Registration App will be available for download on both android and IOS this week barring any unforeseen circumstances,” she told journalists.
“Each registration via the app will be subject to a 5 cedi surcharge.”
But in a statement issued right after the announcement, the Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers said the surcharge of GH¢5 if collected will be illegal on the part of the Minister.
“The Minister has been an MP for some time and should know what ought to be done to impose fees or charges,” the statement signed by head of the group Ras Mubarak, who is also a former MP, said.
“She has not sought parliamentary approval and has no authority to impose fees or charges without parliamentary approval.”
What is more, the statement continued, the timing is not conducive given the economic hardship in the country.
“Secondly, at a time of an economic meltdown where serious governments all over the world are giving their citizens relief packages to ease the burden of the recession, it is disappointing that the Minister will seek to illegally impose further burden on the already struggling Ghanaian public.”
The group, therefore, called on Mrs Owusu-Ekuful “to abandon this insensitive announcement to illegally impose a surcharge of GH¢5 on Ghanaians”.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana