Graft, smuggling charges filed vs Noy, Purisima

MANILA, Philippines – Former president Benigno Aquino III and former finance secretary Cesar Purisima were charged yesterday with graft and smuggling before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly allowing Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to bring unleaded gasoline into the country without paying the right taxes.

Charged with them are officials of Shell led by chairman Edgar Chua.

Former customs commissioner Napoleon Morales, tax collector Juan Tan, and journalist Lourdes Aclan accused the respondents of depriving the government of excise and value added taxes now totaling around P100 billion, including interests and surcharges.

Shell allegedly managed to evade payment of taxes by falsely declaring its unleaded gasoline imports as catalytic cracked gasoline (CCG), light catalytic cracked gasoline (LCCG) and later alkylate from 2004 to 2009.

Such chemicals are described as so-called blending components in the manufacture of gasoline which are not subject to or covered by internal revenue taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs for the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The complainants alleged that from 2001 to 2004, Shell was paying taxes for its gasoline importations but stopped doing so from 2004 to 2009 when it changed its declarations of CGC and LCCG as unleaded gasoline to tetrapropylene and from “exclusive for sale” to “blending component.”

“Due to this modification in the declaration, all the shipments of Shell declared as CGC and LCCG from March 2004 to 2009 were released without payment of taxes,” they said.

When Tan, who is stationed at the Port of Batangas, demanded payment of taxes amounting to P7.348 billion, Shell again allegedly changed its declaration of the imports to alkylate under “waste oil” classification that is not subject to taxes.

An investigation was supposedly conducted on Shell’s allegedly fraudulent acts and the results of the same eventually reached Aquino and Purisima.

Aclan said he wrote Aquino a letter in July 2012 informing him of the refusal of Purisima and other BOC officials to demand payment of taxes from the fuel company, but that his letter was ignored.

“The government has lost over P100 billion including interest, surcharge and 800 percent penalty,” read the complaint.

“It is also losing at least P55 million a month or a whopping P1.3 billion as of July 2016, and counting, in addition to the still unpaid P1.99 billion taxes on Shell’s alkylate importations, aside from the unpaid P7.348 billion taxes on its CGC and LCCG importations. 

“Since 2011, the former president and DOF secretary did nothing but allow Shell to continuously use the P7.348 billion and P1.99 billion government revenue for its own use and benefits thereby giving it unwarranted benefits and causing grave and undue injury to the government.”