Subic firm settles oil trade taxes

By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer Central Luzon Desk

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines -- An oil trading firm made a tax remittance of P30 million on Monday amid accusations by authorities it failed to account for 127.5 million liters of gasoline and diesel from October 2006 to June 2007.

The Tri-Solid Movers Services Inc. has paid P19 million two weeks ago. Its payment on Monday brought to P50 million the amount it settled with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said he was “not aware” of the payments because the settlement procedure was under the BoC.

Tri-Solid’s independent customs broker, Bernabe Anievas, remitted the P30 million payment on Monday.

Marietta Zamoranos, Subic customs collector, heads a task force auditing Tri-Solid’s importation and withdrawal transactions. She was in Manila when the payment was made.

“The ongoing reconciliation between the SBMA estimates and the company’s official reports was requested by Tri-Solid immediately after having been appraised by third party sources of accusations of oil smuggling being made against the company without the benefit of a formal audit,” a statement from Tri-Solid said.

Earlier reports quoted SBMA officials as citing Tri-solid for violations of the Anti-Smuggling Law after it had found the company guilty of selling imported duty-free diesel to unauthorized parties without SBMA tax exemption certificates.

Dennis Ileno, Tri-Solid operations manager, was quoted in the statement as asking Arreza to provide copies of the “supposed notices of (tax) default from his office.”

The P30 million, the statement said, was part of an agreement reached between Tri-Solid and the customs bureau.

Arreza said if the firm was found to have committed fraud, the BoC should impose penalties as well.

“Much of the petroleum products were brought out without gate passes so it leads us to support the suspicion that there might be fraud,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

“I want to see the system work. Those locators are ours. It would encourage other firms to do the same,” he said, referring to the anti-smuggling and import regulatory measures of the government.

Eduardo Alino, the person listed as president of Tri-Solid, did not answer the Inquirer’s calls seeking confirmation on the settlement proceedings.

Calimlim, who has control of the SBMA’s seaport department and the Task Force Subic, denied having any hand in the supposed oil smuggling.

The only known case filed against the Tri-Solid was for falsification of official and public documents and for fraudulent customs practice.

The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, formed by President Macapagal-Arroyo in May, filed the case on July 16.

Arreza said the “voluntary payment made by Tri-Solid is welcome as it indicates a willingness on the part of the company to settle its tax obligations.”

“But until the BoC completes its final assessment, it would be difficult to say whether the amount is sufficient or not,” Arreza said.

A July 18, 2007, report of the special audit mission created by Arreza and Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales showed that Tri-Solid had an “undeclared volume” of 59,497,692 liters of gasoline and diesel.

The audit team arrived at the figures by comparing the reports of the SBMA, BoC, Tri-Solid and Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corp., a company that leased the fuel tanks to Tri-Solid. The discrepancies appeared when the reports were validated.