CA affirms dismissal of tax case vs Shell

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld its dismissal of the case filed by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) against oil giant Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. over the firm’s alleged use of fraudulently obtained tax-credit certificates.

In a two-page resolution promulgated last June 3 but released only yesterday, the ninth division of the appellate court junked the motion for reconsideration filed by the BOC due to lack of new arguments.

The CA instead affirmed its decision last February, upholding the dismissal of the case against Shell by the Manila City regional trial court Branch 49 in April 2010 due to “lack of genuine triable issue” that “requires trial on the merits.”

In upholding the decision of the lower court, the CA said the arguments raised by the BOC against the ruling “constitute no cogent or compelling reason to modify, much less reverse it.”

Associate Justice Socorro Inting penned the CA decision with Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Mario Lopez concurring.

While dismissing the case against Shell, the Manila RTC ordered the trial of Filipino Way Industries (Filway) to proceed.

Records showed that on May 7, 1997, Filway executed a Deed of Assignment over the Tax Credit Certificates in favor of Shell through which Filway assigned, transferred and waived all its rights, claims and interests in Shell’s favor, for P9,080,000 paid by the oil firm.

“As may be gleaned from the pleadings, the arguments advanced by both parties reveal that there (are) clearly no genuine issues necessitating a full-blown trial in view of the fact that the same point at issue had already been discussed and resolved by the Supreme Court in the previous case of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue,” CA explained.