THE COURT of Tax Appeals (CTA) has rejected NLEX Corp.’s appeal to set aside regulatory fees, saying it does not have the authority to do so.
In a decision dated July 19 and made public on July 21, the CTA full court agreed with its Second Division, which said it could not decide on its regulatory fee liabilities worth P72,262.35 since it was not a tax dispute.
“If the court has no jurisdiction over the nature of an action, its only jurisdiction is to dismiss the case,” Associate Justice Catherine T. Manahan said in the ruling, citing the Tax Code. “The court could not decide the case on the merits.”
The assessment stemmed from a 1998 supplemental toll operation deal among the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), Philippine National Construction Corp. and Tollways Management Corporation (TMC), which designated the MNTC to maintain the North Luzon Expressway for a fixed service fee.
A decade later, NLEX agreed to a merger with TMC with the former as the surviving corporation.
The CTA Second Division in 2020 voided the municipal treasurer of Guiguinto’s assessment of NLEX’s local business tax liabilities worth P4.17 million for the same period over computational errors.
In a dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Roman G. Del Rosario voted to remand the case to a CTA division to determine the firm’s liability for regulatory fees.
He cited CTA jurisprudence that canceled both local taxes and regulatory fees at the same time.
“The issue of whether the petitioner is liable for local business tax and the issue of whether it is liable for regulatory fees should in fact be resolved in one case by one court, such issues having arisen from one single assessment issued against the petitioner,” the magistrate said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
Tax appeals court denies NLEX lawsuit vs regulatory charges for lack of jurisdiction
Source: Bantay Radio
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