Ombudsman probes involvement of gov't agencies in tax credit scam

The Office of the Ombudsman started investigating yesterday an alleged conspiracy among officials of the National Power Corp., the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Finance in a multibillion- peso tax credit scam.

Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said they will investigate in particular JC Guaderama Jr. of Napocor's material and management department, Customs' Deputy Commissioner Licero Evangelista and former Finance Undersecretary Antonio Belicena.

Desierto told reporters that the alleged connivance of these three officials resulted in a P7-billion loss for the government in terms of revenues.

The Ombudsman's Fact-Finding and Investigation Bureau discovered that the state-owned power firm granted 73 tax credit certificates (TCCs) to the country's top three local oil companies between 1996 and 1997.

According to the fact-finding bureau, about P151 million worth of TCCs were transferred to the oil firms "as part of its payment for bunker fuels procured."

Desierto said in a statement that "the oil companies, in turn, applied the TCCs against their import taxes and duties."

"The whole process allegedly directly contravened the plain stipulations in the TCCs that such documents can only be applied against Napocor's very own taxes and duties payable to the Customs bureau," he added.

Desierto said the government is the victim in this case.

"These TCCs were transferred (by Napocor, Customs, Finance ) to the three oil companies, which are 50 percent tax- exempt. So there were many exemptions," he said.

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican said the government, Petron and the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. have not yet reached a settlement on the alleged illegal use of the TCCs in the payment of their tax liabilities.

In a statement, Barican said the committee created by President Estrada to look into the tax anomaly is still investigating the case and has not yet made any recommendations.