CBK Power Company Limited v. CIR (January 15, 2014)
CBK Power Company Limited v. CIR (January 15, 2014)
CBK Power Company Limited v. CIR (January 15, 2014)
vs.
DECISION
SERENO, C.J :
p
This is a Petition for Review on Certiorari 1(1) under Rule 45 of the 1997
Rules of Civil Procedure filed by CBK Power Company Limited (petitioner). The
Petition assails the Decision 2(2) dated 27 June 2011 and Resolution 3(3) dated 16
September 2011 of the Court of Tax Appeals En Banc (CTA En Banc) in C.T.A. EB
Nos. 658 and 659. The assailed Decision and Resolution reversed and set aside the
Decision 4(4) dated 3 March 2010 and Resolution 5(5) dated 6 July 2010 rendered by
the CTA Special Second Division in C.T.A. Case No. 7621, which partly granted the
claim of petitioner for the issuance of a tax credit certificate representing the latter's
alleged unutilized input taxes on local purchases of goods and services attributable to
effectively zero-rated sales to National Power Corporation (NPC) for the second and
third quarters of 2005.
THE FACTS
Petitioner is engaged, among others, in the operation, maintenance, and
management of the Kalayaan II pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant, the new
Caliraya Spillway, Caliraya, Botocan; and the Kalayaan I hydroelectric power plants
and their related facilities located in the Province of Laguna. 6(6)
On 29 December 2004, petitioner filed an Application for VAT Zero-Rate with
the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in accordance with Section 108 (B) (3) of the
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National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, as amended. The application was
duly approved by the BIR. Thus, petitioner's sale of electricity to the NPC from 1
January 2005 to 31 October 2005 was declared to be entitled to the benefit of
effectively zero-rated value added tax (VAT). 7(7)
CAHTIS
Petitioner filed its administrative claims for the issuance of tax credit
certificates for its alleged unutilized input taxes on its purchase of capital goods and
alleged unutilized input taxes on its local purchases and/or importation of goods and
services, other than capital goods, pursuant to Sections 112 (A) and (B) of the NIRC
of 1997, as amended, with BIR Revenue District Office (RDO) No. 55 of Laguna, as
follows: 8(8)
Period Covered
Date of Filing
30-Jun-05
15-Sep-05
28-Oct-05
Taxable Quarter
Close of the quarter
Last Day to
File Claim for
Refund
1st quarter
31-Mar-05
31-Mar-07
2nd quarter
30-Jun-05
30-Jun-07
3rd quarter
30-Sep-05
30-Sep-07
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Accordingly, petitioner timely filed its administrative claims for the three
quarters of 2005. However, considering that the judicial claim was filed on 18 April
2007, the CTA Division denied the claim for the first quarter of 2005 for having been
filed out of time.
cCTaSH
After an evaluation of petitioner's claim for the second and third quarters of
2005, the court a quo partly granted the claim and ordered the issuance of a tax credit
certificate in favor of petitioner in the reduced amount of P27,170,123.36.
The parties filed their respective Motions for Partial Reconsideration, which
were both denied by the CTA Division.
THE CTA EN BANC RULING
On appeal, relying on Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Aichi Forging
Company of Asia, Inc. (Aichi), 10(10) the CTA En Banc ruled that petitioner's judicial
claim for the first, second, and third quarters of 2005 were belatedly filed.
The CTA Special Second Division Decision and Resolution were reversed and
set aside, and the Petition for Review filed in CTA Case No. 7621 was dismissed.
Petitioner's Motion for Reconsideration was likewise denied for lack of merit.
Hence, this Petition.
ScEaAD
ISSUE
Petitioner's assigned errors boil down to the principal issue of the applicable
prescriptive period on its claim for refund of unutilized input VAT for the first to third
quarters of 2005. 11(11)
THE COURT'S RULING
The pertinent provision of the NIRC at the time when petitioner filed its claim
for refund provides:
SEC. 112.
such sales, except transitional input tax, to the extent that such input tax
has not been applied against output tax: Provided, however, That in the
case of zero-rated sales under Section 106(A)(2)(a)(1),(2) and (B) and
Section 108 (B)(1) and (2), the acceptable foreign currency exchange
proceeds thereof had been duly accounted for in accordance with the
rules and regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP):
Provided, further, That where the taxpayer is engaged in zero-rated or
effectively zero-rated sale and also in taxable or exempt sale of goods or
properties or services, and the amount of creditable input tax due or paid
cannot be directly and entirely attributed to any one of the transactions, it
shall be allocated proportionately on the basis of the volume of sales.
xxx
xxx
xxx
Under the 1997 NIRC, if at the end of a taxable quarter the seller charges
output taxes equal to the input taxes that his suppliers passed on to him, no
payment is required of him. It is when his output taxes exceed his input taxes
that he has to pay the excess to the BIR. If the input taxes exceed the output
taxes, however, the excess payment shall be carried over to the succeeding
quarter or quarters. Should the input taxes result from zero-rated or effectively
zero-rated transactions or from the acquisition of capital goods, any excess over
the output taxes shall instead be refunded to the taxpayer.
The crux of the controversy arose from the proper application of the
prescriptive periods set forth in Section 112 of the NIRC of 1997, as amended, and the
interpretation of the applicable jurisprudence.
Although the ponente in this case expressed a different view on the mandatory
application of the 120+30 day period as prescribed in Section 112, with the finality of
the Court's pronouncement on the consolidated tax cases Commissioner of Internal
Revenue v. San Roque Power Corporation, Taganito Mining Corporation v.
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and Philex Mining Corporation v. Commissioner
of Internal Revenue 14(14) (hereby collectively referred as San Roque), we are
constrained to apply the dispositions therein to the facts herein which are similar.
Administrative Claim
Section 112 (A) provides that after the close of the taxable quarter when the
sales were made, there is a two-year prescriptive period within which a
VAT-registered person whose sales are zero-rated or effectively zero-rated may apply
for the issuance of a tax credit certificate or refund of creditable input tax.
Our VAT Law provides for a mechanism that would allow VAT-registered
persons to recover the excess input taxes over the output taxes they had paid in
relation to their sales. For the refund or credit of excess or unutilized input tax,
Section 112 is the governing law. Given the distinctive nature of creditable input tax,
the law under Section 112 (A) provides for a different reckoning point for the
two-year prescriptive period, specifically for the refund or credit of that tax only.
We agree with petitioner that Mirant was not yet in existence when their
administrative claim was filed in 2005; thus, it should not retroactively be applied to
the instant case.
However, the fact remains that Section 112 is the controlling provision for the
refund or credit of input tax during the time that petitioner filed its claim with which
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they ought to comply. It must be emphasized that the Court merely clarified in Mirant
that Sections 204 and 229, which prescribed a different starting point for the two-year
prescriptive limit for filing a claim for a refund or credit of excess input tax, were not
applicable. Input tax is neither an erroneously paid nor an illegally collected internal
revenue tax. 15(15)
ISAaTH
Section 112 (A) is clear that for VAT-registered persons whose sales are
zero-rated or effectively zero-rated, a claim for the refund or credit of creditable input
tax that is due or paid, and that is attributable to zero-rated or effectively zero-rated
sales, must be filed within two years after the close of the taxable quarter when such
sales were made. The reckoning frame would always be the end of the quarter when
the pertinent sale or transactions were made, regardless of when the input VAT was
paid. 16(16)
Pursuant to Section 112 (A), petitioner's administrative claims were filed well
within the two-year period from the close of the taxable quarter when the effectively
zero-rated sales were made, to wit:
Period Covered
Close of the
Taxable
Quarter
31-Mar-05
31-Mar-07
30-Jun-05
30-Jun-05
30-Jun-07
15-Sep-05
30-Sep-05
30-Sep-07
28-Oct-05
Date of Filing
Judicial Claim
Section 112 (D) further provides that the CIR has to decide on an
administrative claim within one hundred twenty (120) days from the date of
submission of complete documents in support thereof.
Bearing in mind that the burden to prove entitlement to a tax refund is on the
taxpayer, it is presumed that in order to discharge its burden, petitioner had attached
complete supporting documents necessary to prove its entitlement to a refund in its
application, absent any evidence to the contrary.
Thereafter, the taxpayer affected by the CIR's decision or inaction may appeal
to the CTA within 30 days from the receipt of the decision or from the expiration of
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the 120-day period within which the claim has not been acted upon.
Considering further that the 30-day period to appeal to the CTA is dependent
on the 120-day period, compliance with both periods is jurisdictional. The period of
120 days is a prerequisite for the commencement of the 30-day period to appeal to the
CTA.
Prescinding from San Roque in the consolidated case Mindanao II Geothermal
Partnership v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue and Mindanao I Geothermal
Partnership v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 17(17) this Court has ruled thus:
Notwithstanding a strict construction of any claim for tax exemption or
refund, the Court in San Roque recognized that BIR Ruling No. DA-489-03
constitutes equitable estoppel in favor of taxpayers. BIR Ruling No.
DA-489-03 expressly states that the "taxpayer-claimant need not wait for
the lapse of the 120-day period before it could seek judicial relief with the
CTA by way of Petition for Review." This Court discussed BIR Ruling No.
DA-489-03 and its effect on taxpayers, thus:
Taxpayers should not be prejudiced by an erroneous
interpretation by the Commissioner, particularly on a difficult question
of law. The abandonment of the Atlas doctrine by Mirant and Aichi is
proof that the reckoning of the prescriptive periods for input VAT tax
refund or credit is a difficult question of law. The abandonment of the
Atlas doctrine did not result in Atlas, or other taxpayers similarly
situated, being made to return the tax refund or credit they received or
could have received under Atlas prior to its abandonment. This Court is
applying Mirant and Aichi prospectively. Absent fraud, bad faith or
misrepresentation, the reversal by this Court of a general interpretative
rule issued by the Commissioner, like the reversal of a specific BIR
ruling under Section 246, should also apply prospectively. . . . .
xxx
xxx
xxx
Administrative
Claim Filed
Expiration of
120-days
Judicial
Claim Filed
30-Jun-05
28-Oct-05
27-Nov-05
18-Apr-07
15-Sep-05
13-Jan-06
13-Feb-06
28-Oct-05
26-Feb-06
28-Mar-06
Likewise, while petitioner filed its administrative and judicial claims during the
period of applicability of BIR Ruling No. DA-489-03, it cannot claim the benefit of
the exception period as it did not file its judicial claim prematurely, but did so long
after the lapse of the 30-day period following the expiration of the 120-day period.
Again, BIR Ruling No. DA-489-03 allowed premature filing of a judicial claim,
which means non-exhaustion of the 120-day period for the Commissioner to act on an
administrative claim, 19(19) but not its late filing.
DEHaTC
As this Court enunciated in San Roque, petitioner cannot rely on Atlas either,
since the latter case was promulgated only on 8 June 2007. Moreover, the doctrine in
Atlas which reckons the two-year period from the date of filing of the return and
payment of the tax, does not interpret expressly or impliedly the 120+30 day
periods. 20(20) Simply stated, Atlas referred only to the reckoning of the prescriptive
period for filing an administrative claim.
For failure of petitioner to comply with the 120+30 day mandatory and
jurisdictional period, petitioner lost its right to claim a refund or credit of its alleged
excess input VAT.
With regard to petitioner's argument that Aichi should not be applied
retroactively, we reiterate that even without that ruling, the law is explicit on the
mandatory and jurisdictional nature of the 120+30 day period.
Also devoid of merit is the applicability of the principle of solutio indebiti to
the present case. According to this principle, if something is received when there is no
right to demand it, and it was unduly delivered through mistake, the obligation to
return it arises. In that situation, a creditor-debtor relationship is created under a
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quasi-contract, whereby the payor becomes the creditor who then has the right to
demand the return of payment made by mistake, and the person who has no right to
receive the payment becomes obligated to return it. 21(21) The quasi-contract of
solutio indebiti is based on the ancient principle that no one shall enrich oneself
unjustly at the expense of another. 22(22)
There is solutio indebiti when:
(1)
(2)
Finally, equity, which has been aptly described as "a justice outside legality," is
applied only in the absence of, and never against, statutory law or judicial rules of
procedure. 25(25) Section 112 is a positive rule that should preempt and prevail over
all abstract arguments based only on equity.
DTIACH
Well-settled is the rule that tax refunds or credits, just like tax exemptions, are
strictly construed against the taxpayer. 26(26) The burden is on the taxpayer to show
strict compliance with the conditions for the grant of the tax refund or credit. 27(27)
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant Petition is DENIED.
SO ORDERED.
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Endnotes
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Id. at 39-42.
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Id. at 85-92.
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Id. at 98-99; Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 of the Revised Rules of
Court.
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Id. at 221.
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G.R. No. 178090, 8 February, 2010, 612 SCRA 28, 34, citing Commissioner of
Internal Revenue v. Seagate Technology (Philippines), 491 Phil. 317, 333 (2005).
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Supra note 9.
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Id.
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Id.
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Siga-an v. Villanueva, G.R. No. 173227, 20 January 2009, 576 SCRA 696, 708.
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Mendiola v. Court of Appeals, 327 Phil. 1156, 1166 (1996), citing Causapin v. Court
of Appeals, 233 SCRA 615, 625 (1994).
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