Philippine customs authorities on Thursday asked state prosecutors to file criminal charges against a unit of Royal Dutch Shell for allegedly smuggling 557 million dollars of oil products.
Roberto Kanapi, spokesman for Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., one of the country's two refiners, could not be reached for comment, however local television quoted him as saying the complaint was without basis.
In a complaint filed at the justice ministry, customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez demanded that the company be ordered to pay 18.159 billion pesos (421 million dollars) in import taxes and 6.32 billion pesos in penalties.
"Pilipinas Shell is being criminally sued for intentional misclassification and misdeclaration of its various petroleum importations... to evade the payment of correct excise and value-added tax," he said.
Under the Philippine legal system, complaints are brought to state prosecutors, who are required to evaluate whether the evidence put forward warrants the filing of criminal cases in court.
There was no immediate response from the justice department on the complaint, which named Shell's country tax manager and four other employees, as well as three customs brokers.
Customs officials allege that between 2007 and 2009, Pilipinas Shell paid duties for tetrapropylene when in fact it brought in unleaded premium gasoline, which has a different tax rate.
The company also paid tax rates for unleaded premium gasoline on actual imports of catalytic cracked gasoline between 2005 and 2008, they alleged.
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Topic: Philippines targets Shell in smuggling case (Read 547 times)