Shell seeks COA, NBI probe on tax informer reward

The legal counsel of oil firm Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. ( PSPC) has urged the Commission on Audit( CO A) to investigate an alleged tax informer’s reward scam using public funds against big taxpayers.

This comes after PSPC asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe the same case last month.

In a briefing yesterday, PSPC lawyer and former ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said a letter was filed with COA last April 13, requesting the agency to conduct an audit of the informer’s reward payments of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

In the letter addressed to COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo, the PSPC lawyer said the huge informer’s rewards collected came from public funds, which should have otherwise accrued to the government.

“Our request is to investigate BOC and BIR from 2004 to 2010. This happened during the second term of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Unfortunately, there are other cases filed by the syndicate using the same modus operandi,” he said.

The information came from insiders within the tax agencies, disclosing that a fraudulent scheme was being implemented by certain unscrupulous retired and incumbent officials of the bureaus in conspiracy with private citizens acting as fronts, in order to illegally benefit from the informer’s reward system under the Tariff and Customs Code, Marcelo said.

“According to the informants within the BOC and the BIR, the informer’s reward under Section 3513 of the TCC was the incentive for these unscrupulous public officials and their conspirators to unlawfully seek to collect taxes which are not even due from law-abiding citizens and corporations, and make it appear that the non-payment of taxes was discovered due to instrumental information provided by certain private informers,” he said.

Marcelo asked COA to consider looking into informer’s reward supposedly paid in connection with a claim for duties against Chevron Philippines Inc.

Chevron was reportedly held liable for the dutiable value of its importations which were deemed abandoned by the government under Section 1801 of the Tariff Code, amounting to over P1 billion.

The supposed informer in the Chevron case reportedly received over P200 million in reward money, representing 25 percent of the dutiable value of the shipment declared abandoned.

Based on the law, Marcelo said the informer was not due a reward since documents are already with the tax agencies.

Under Section 3513 of the Tariff Code, an informant must furnish “definite information” which shall result in the recovery of revenue.

On the other hand, Section 282 of the National Internal Revenue Code provides that the sworn information must “not yet [be] in the possession of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.”

“An informer’s reward is obviously not due since the alleged informer was undeniably not able to provide any information instrumental to the discovery of violations… since the information used against Chevron were already in the possession of the BOC and the BIR,” Marcelo said.