The government intends to use Pilipina’s Shell Petroleum Corp.
In an online report on Thursday, President’s spokesman Harry Roque said the court-issued injunction (TRO) preventing the government from collecting the amount has been removed.
He said the customs office decided to collect the “largest excise tax in the history of the country” from Pilipinas Shell.
“The 41 billion pesos will be used primarily for our Covid response,” said Roque.
He explained that the level of unpaid excise taxes initially started at just P3 billion to P4 billion, but then swelled to P41 billion due to penalties and interest.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court overturned the 2014 TRO after the government appealed.
The case stemmed from Pilipinas Shell’s refusal to pay the excise duty on 80,162 barrels of alkylate valued at over 1.99 billion pesos. He stated that the substance is not subject to taxation as it only serves as an additive to his unleaded gasoline.
However, the government insisted that shipping of alkylate for product distillation should be taxed.