RTC tells TSC: Pay P17-M transfer tax
LINGAYEN- – The provincial government prevailed in its long-drawn legal battle with Team Sual Corporation (TSC), owner of the Sual Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant, when the latter was ordered by the court to pay P178 million to the provincial government for local transfer tax.
This after the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Lingayen dismissed Civil Case No. 19095 filed by the TSC against the Province of Pangasinan for the annulment of assessment for local transfer tax and resolved that the transfer tax be paid to the provincial government of Pangasinan.
Team Sual sought to annul and set aside the provincial treasurer’s assessment dated November 3, 2010 which demanded payment of transfer tax on the alleged transfer to plaintiff of machineries and buildings of the Sual Power Plant in the amount of Php 178,457,040 plus interest and surcharges.”
The Provincial Legal Office on February 26, 2016 received its copy of the
decision, signed on February 10, 2016 by RTC Br. 37 Acting Judge Jaime L. Dojillo, Jr.
The TSC had argued that Mirant Sual and Team Sual refer to ‘one and the same corporation’ and that the sale of Mirant (US) of its shares in Mirant Asia Pacific Ltd. based in Bermuda to Crimson Power, a joint venture of Tokyo and Marubeni, was only a sale of shares of stocks and did not affect the corporate identity of the corporation.
The provincial government, however, argued that the present TSC is actually a ‘new corporation after the consortium of Tokyo Electric Company International B.V. and Marubeni Corporation completed the purchase of all the business of Mirant Corporation in the Philippines including the Sual Coal Fired Thermal Power plant based in Sual town.’
The court eventually ruled that all its assets, properties including machineries, buildings, improvements and all collective possessions of Mirant Sual were transferred under a new set of owners, which is now the TSC evidenced by its new set of directors and transfer of its principal office in in Pasay City, Metro Manila and no longer in Sual, Pangasinan.
The Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant (SCFPP) began operating in 1999. (Leonardo Micua /PIO)
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