The government will not seize imports of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. until the Supreme Court issues a final ruling on a dispute with the Bureau of Customs (BoC), Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in Malolos, Bulacan Wednesday.

Ermita disclosed that Shell appealed the Court of Tax Appeals decision to the Supreme Court after the CTA voted 2-to-1 denying Pilipinas Shell’s petition to block the BoC from confiscating Shell’s importation to answer for a P7.3 billion assessment on previous imports.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs said it was amenable to Pilipinas Shell’s paying on a staggered basis its P7.3 billion unpaid excise taxes until May this year should the oil company decide to enter into a compromise within the five-day grace period allowed by the Department of Finance.

“I am amenable to their payment on a staggered basis but only up to May this year because we will have a new president already by June,” BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales told reporters on Wednesday’s launch for the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).

Morales said that Shell may propose to pay on a staggered basis within the five-day grace period, starting Wednesday, by which it is allowed to avail of a compromise to settle its excise taxes.
Morales said that Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has agreed to grant Shell the five day extension period to “give the firm a chance to avail of the compromise to pay.”

The five day grace period was granted to Shell by Teves after the Court of Tax Appeals denied the motion of Shell to prevent BoC from seizing its Importation of Catalytic Cracked Unleaded Gasoline.

According to Morales, should Shell decide to pay within the allowed period then he will not implement Executive Order 1508, which empowers them to seize its importation. Morales further said that he has the full backing of all the oil companies, which have been religiously paying their excise duties of their oil imports.