COA affirms lifting of P846M notices of charge against ex-BOC officials
The Commission on Audit (COA) has affirmed the lifting of the P846 million notices of charge (NCs) which were issued against former Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioners Rozzano B. Biazon and Napoleon L. Morales.
The COA ruled that the BOC commissioners are authorized by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to grant value added tax (VAT) refunds through the issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs).
It affirmed Decision No. 2014-04 issued by the COA-National Government Sector (NGS) Cluster 2, dated July 15, 2014, which reversed and set aside the 94 NCs in the total amount of P846,264,032.57.
NCs are issued by state auditors against officials for non-collection, under collection, non-remittance or under remittance of collections. In this case, state auditors said that the refund of internal revenue taxes such as VAT made by the BOC were "illegal drawbacks" and should be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the BIR, not the BOC.
Biazon and Morales, together with lawyers and former deputy commissioners Reynaldo V. Umali and Felipe A. Bartolome, filed an appeal.
They insisted that the issuance of the TCCs by the BOC were legal and they cited Sections 106 and 1708 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) which expressly authorized the Commissioner of Customs to grant refund to tax credit of internal revenue taxes.
COA sided with the BOC officials as it ruled that the NGS Decision No. 2014-04 is proper. "This Commission finds the BOC Commissioner to have authority to issue the TCCs in this case," the decision said.
"In view thereof, this Commission believes and so holds that there is sufficient basis to lift the subject NCs," it added.