Big Boy Sy, Coyiuto, Beijing partner meted another Tax 101 lesson
Billionaire partners Henry “Big Boy” Sy Jr. and Roberto Coyiuto Jr., together with their mainland China principal, have been given another refresher course on Tax 101, courtesy of the promdis of Mindanao.
The Court of Tax Appeals last week ruled en banc that the Sy-Coyiuto-State Grid of China consortium that controls the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines have to cough up first the real estate tax payments being demanded by the town of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur before their consortium could seek a judicial review.
In plain words, pay first, protest later.
Named the most competitive Philippine town in 2013, San Francisco had imposed a P5.8-million real estate taxes for 2011 and 2012 on about a hectare of National Grid property that houses its fuel and water tanks and a warehouse, among others.
But National Grid, claiming that the property was inherited from the state-owned TransCo before its privatization in 2009, should also be tax-exempt under its franchise.
“The properties assessed and classified as machinery and equipment are indispensable parts of the nationwide power transmission system or grid, without which it cannot operate the transmission system and deliver electricity to the public,” the tax court said, quoting the National Grid position.
But rather than rule on the tax-exemption issue, the tax appellate court upheld the provincial and municipal board of assessments, which required that the taxpayer, per the Local Government Code of 199, first pay under protest the real estate tax before it proceeds with a judicial appeal.
National Grid last year already lost in the Supreme Court a similar real estate tax case lodged against the consortium by the Cebu City government.
While the Supreme Court agreed with the National Grid exemption on any local and national tax on “properties used in connection with its franchise,” the high tribunal nevertheless directed the Cebu City government to go ahead with the tax assessment and collection.
“If the subject properties are not used in connection with NGCP’s franchise, then the assessment level should be based on actual use in accordance with Section 218(ac) of the Local Government Code,” said Justice Antonio Carpio.
Police raid jolts SanLo village
The festering inheritance feud that has been eating up Ivory Coast honorary consul Vicente Carlos and his siblings for years have taken a darker turn this weekend after the San Lorenzo house of his brother Juan “Jonny” Carlos Jr. was raided by the police.
A former Makati Rotary Club president, Jonny spent the weekend at the CIDG Hilton in Taguig after the raiding team reportedly found a number of allegedly unlicensed firearms and, gulp, two grenades in the house.
Jonny is expected to be presented before the Makati Prosecutor’s Office Monday morning to determine if there is prima facie case for what is supposed to be a non-bailable offense.
The Saturday afternoon raid jolted the SanLo neighbors out of their siesta, with one resident describing the police operation as “very well coordinated and planned.”
PAL relaunches longest service
Philippine Airlines is set to resume its nonstop Manila-Toronto service on Dec. 16 in time for the Christmas holiday traffic.
The direct run was first introduced in late 2012, with the three times a week service halted after the Yuletide rush for insufficient passenger demand.
The Manila-Toronto flight takes almost 16.5 hours, and would classify as one of the longest commercial passenger flights using the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
A check with the PAL website yesterday noon showed no available seats and fares for the Manila-Toronto route starting Dec. 16, in preparation for the formal announcement this week to be made by PAL president Jaime Bautista.
Heard through the grapevine
The condo unit of society lady Baby Cruz in Urdaneta Apartments will figure prominently in the electoral sabotage complaint that will be unleashed this week against her son-in-law, Comelec chairman Andres Bautista.
The Urdaneta unit has apparently been used a number of times before and after last year’s elections for Bautista’s meetings with Smartmatic, meetings which Bautista maintains as above-board.
Cruz could not be reached for comment as she and her new husband, realtor Daniel Vazquez, are reportedly out of the country to seek political and media detoxification.
The more intriguing question for the de alta sociedad is, would the new bride be treated in the putative sabotage complaint as a witness or as a co-conspirator?