Shell ordered to pay P5.72B in back taxes

INQUIRER file photo

The Court of Tax Appeals has ordered Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to pay P5.72 billion in unpaid excise and value-added taxes pursuant to a 2015 decision that two gasoline components used as raw materials were taxable.

In its 16-page amended decision dated Sept. 5, the CTA en banc indicated the amount PSPC has to pay for its importations for the years 2006 to 2009. It covered P4.57 billion in deficiency excise tax and VAT as well as a 25-percent surcharge of P1.14 billion.

The amended decision, written by Justice Caesar A. Casanova, was in response to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s appeal for a clarifi    cation of the Sept. 28, 2015, decision in the government’s favor. The 2015 ruling found Shell liable to pay the tax on Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (CCG) and Light Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (LCCG) imported from 2006 to 2009 to be used as raw materials for finished-grade unleaded gasoline. However, its dispositive portion did not specify the amount Shell should pay, prompting the BIR’s appeal.

On the other hand, the court maintained that Shell would no longer be liable for the tax for the years 2004 and 2005 as these were deemed forgiven by the government’s amnesty program.

Through the same decision, the CTA denied Shell’s several appeals against the September 2015 ruling. Even as Shell restated the dissenting opinion of Justice M. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban in its motion for reconsideration, the CTA said the arguments were already threshed out by the original decision.

The case arose from Shell’s petition seeking to invalidate the controversial Dec. 15, 2009, BIR ruling by then Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres that CCG and LCCG were subject to an excise tax of P4.35 a liter while finished products made with these raw materials would be subjected to another excise tax of P4.35 a liter. –Vince F. Nonato