Pilipinas Shell seeks intervention over taxes

Oil refiner Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC) has petitioned the Philippine Court of Appeals to prevent the Bureau of Customs (BOC) from collecting back taxes from 2004 to 2009 amounting to Php7.34 billion (US$156.07 million) from the company. In a 57-page petition, Shell said the BOC has no jurisdiction to issue the questioned tax assessment since “the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government agency tasked by law to collect all national internal revenue taxes and to interpret provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) has previously ruled that such importations are not subject to said taxes.” Shell said the BIR has not issued any tax assessment under the NIRC covering the importations of catalytic cracked gasoline (CCG) and light catalytic cracked gasoline (LCCG) and that the BIR “has ruled that Shell’s importations of CCG and LCCG, being intermediate products or raw materials, are not subject to excise taxes.” (December 5, 2009)