The Department of Finance (DOF) has commended the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for its upcoming collection of P3.49 billion in excise and value-added taxes on the alkylate importations of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC) from 2014 to 2020, the agency said in a statement over the weekend.
DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez said BOC’s move to demand tax payments on Shell’s alkylate imports “levels the playing field” as other oil companies have been paying the same on their shipments of the product.
PSPC has agreed to pay the P3,491,629,824 in taxes on its past alkylate importations in two installments, but “under protest” as its case is still pending with the courts.
In a letter recently sent to PSPC, Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said the BOC was recognizing the oil firm’s intent to pay the back taxes and directed it to submit its first payment on or before December 27 this year.
Guerrero made it clear in his letter to Lorelei Osial, PSPC president and chief executive officer, the possible suspension of the oil firm’s accreditation in case it fails to pay the taxes “was not whimsically raised nor is the same a threat, but rather a proper recourse of the bureau pursuant to existing rules and regulations and in view of the dissolution by the Supreme Court (SC) of the temporary restraining order (TRO) previously issued” on the government’s demand for payment.
The SC lifted the TRO that barred the government from collecting taxes on Shell’s alkylate imports in March.
The high court also remanded the case to the Court of Tax Appeals, where PSPC has filed a motion to pursue its previous TRO application to stop the government from collecting taxes on its alkylate shipments.
“In the event of default for the payment as agreed upon, the suspension of the accreditation of PSPC shall be forthwith imposed subject to existing rules and regulations, and without prejudice to any other available administrative and judicial remedies which the BOC may exercise,” Guerrero said in his letter. – Angela Celis
