The president of Ancap, Alejandro Stipanicic, stated that they will seek the return of the money, based on the claim enabled by the Supreme Court.
The Uruguayan Distributor of Fuels SA (Ducsa) will initiate a trial against the Municipality of Montevideo (IM) to recover the money paid for the flammable rate during the last four years, after the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) will declare the tax unconstitutional and the company will not be able to reach an agreement with the capital’s mayor in this regard.
Ducsa will go to trial against the Municipality of Montevideo. This was announced by the president of the National Administration of Fuels, Alcohol and Portland (Ancap), Alejandro Stipanicic, to VTV Noticias. The objective will be to recover the money paid which, in the first estimates, would be around 30 million dollars.
“There is one thing judged by the Supreme Court, that the rate has already disappeared,” recalled the head of the state company, in relation to the ruling of the SCJ that declared the flammable rate unconstitutional in the middle of last year, after more than sixty years of validity of said tax. “The prevailing law allows us to make the claim four years ago, we made the administrative claim, we began the conciliation process, there was no conciliation,” he summarized the process of the last few days.
In that sense, Stipanicic was understanding with the IM’s decision, but stressed that the priority, from his position, is the subsidiary of the public company: “It is a lot of money for the Municipality, it is also a lot of money for Ducsa and well, we’ll go to judgment”, he claimed.
Asked about the time it may take to know a result in Justice, the president of Ancap He considered that it will depend on the “procedural times,” but that “it may take a year or more.”
A failed agreement
The impossibility of reaching an agreement between Ancap and the Municipality of Montevideo Regarding the money paid for flammable taxes during the last four years, it was known on Wednesday, after the conciliation hearing In the face of the claim of almost 30 million dollars by the state company to the commune, it did not have positive results.
Ducsa’s claim is based on the ruling of the SCJ in June, which enabled the distributor to request the refund of money paid for the flammable tax with a maximum retroactivity of four years.
In the judicial sphere, the subsidiary company of Ancap He maintained that the IM lacked constitutional power to create a tax that, furthermore, had no direct compensation in terms of the activity.
In that sense, the company considered that the flammable tax did not provide an effective divisible and measurable service on the part of the IM towards the taxpayers of said tax. Furthermore, it did not establish the destination of the money collected and It is not aimed at meeting the needs of the supposed safety control service for vehicles that transport flammable products.
In the lawsuit, Ducsa also insisted that the rate generated an important distinction and that it taxed the owners or senders of flammable products with 1% of the sale price, but not other subjects who transport and sell other similar products.
Source: Ambito
