The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has denied the petition of Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) which sought from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) a P1 million tax refund on the importation of alcohol products from 2013 and 2014.
PAL wanted a reversal of the CTA’s third division ruling which denied its tax refund in a decision issued on June 10, 2022.
It told the CTA, as a full court, that there was an error in ruling that it failed to establish that the subjected imported alcohol products are not locally available in reasonable quantity, quality, or price at the time of importation.
PAL said that the unavailability of the prices from local suppliers such as Absolute Sales and Fortune Trade only proves that the imported commissary supplies are not available in sufficient quantity or quality in local markets.
However, the CTA en banc (full court) disagreed and said that PAL failed to prove its point. To prove that the imported alcohol products were not locally available, PAL submitted a 2010 price survey of alcohol products but the CA said the list cannot be a valid comparison to the importations made in 2013 and 2014.
PAL likewise submitted the price list of only one supplier -- Future Trade International, Inc. However, the CTA said that it cannot rely on the price list of only one supplier absent any evidence that the supplier adequately represents the local market prices or that the said supplier is the exclusive distributor of the listed alcohol products.
"With the foregoing disquisitions, we could only agree with the Third Division that petitioner failed to present sufficient and convincing evidence to prove that the subject alcohol products it imported were not locally available in sufficient quantity, quality, or price at the time of importation. Such being the case, the Court En Banc finds no reason to reverse the Third Division's assailed Decision and Resolution," it ruled.
The 21-page decision was written by Associate Justice Jean Marie A. Bacorro-Villena with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Roman G. Del Rosario and Associate Justices Ma. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban, Catherine T. Manahan, Maria Rowena Modesto-San Pedro, Marian Ivy F. Reyes-Fajardo, Lanee S. Cui-David, Corazon G. Ferrer-Flores, and Henry S. Angeles.