The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has dismissed the petition filed by Arrow Freight Corporation (AFC) for a refund of P33.28 million in withholding taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for taxable year 2014.

Instead, the CTA -- as a full court --  affirmed AFC's partial refund for P15.5 million as ordered by the tax court's  first division on Aug. 23, 2021.

In dismissing the petition, the CTA ruled that AFC failed to file a timely motion for reconsideration of the first division's decision.   

"At this juncture, this Court reiterates that AFC's Motion for Partial Reconsideration on Nov. 29, 2021 was filed out of time, as found by the Court in Division," the decision stated.

"Clearly, this Court cannot consider AFC's Petition for Review because its Motion for Reconsideration filed before the Court in Division was filed out of time; thus, it already lost its right to appeal. Failure to interpose a timely appeal deprives the appellate body of any opportunity to alter the final judgment, more so to entertain the appeal," it also stated.

In its petition, AFC claimed that the court's firsr division erred in ruling that income payments amounting to P348,805,683.89 with corresponding creditable withholding tax (CWT) of P16,367,799.08 actually earned in 2012 and 2013 should be disallowed since they did not pertain to the subject period of claim.

The freight company is insisting that it was only in 2014 when these were collected and the CWTs were issued by the payor to AFC.

AFC's claims were denied by the CTA in a decision written by Associate Justice Corazon G. Ferrer-Flores with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Roman G. Del Rosario and Associate Justices Ma. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban, Catherine T. Manahan, Jean Marie A. Bacorro-Villena, Maria Rowena Modesto-San Pedro, Marian Ivy F. Reyes-Fajardo, Lanee S. Cui-David, and Henry S. Angeles.