THE COURT of Tax Appeals (CTA) En Banc has dismissed the petition for review filed by First Philippine Utilities Corp. for lack of jurisdiction over the case.
In the decision promulgated Sept. 4, the court stated that it only has jurisdiction over cases that have already been decided and not in “interlocutory orders.”
The First Philippine Utilities filed the petition at the CTA En Banc seeking the reversal of the resolutions of the CTA Second Division dated Feb. 27, 2017 and May 4, 2017 which denied its motions to declare the alleged deficiency tax for the taxable year 2009 as null and void amounting to P289, 733,393.79 as assessed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The Court En Banc finds the filing of the instant case premature, and must perforce be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” the decision read.
The court has cited a previous Supreme Court decision that the CTA En Banc “has jurisdiction over final order or judgment but not over interlocutory orders issued by the CTA in division.”
According to the cited Supreme Court decision on the case titled Commissioner of Internal Revenue vs. Court of Tax Appeals and CBK Power Co. Ltd., a “‘final’ judgment” is an order which “finally disposes of a case” and leaves “nothing more to be done by the Court in respect thereto.”
An interlocutory, on the other hand, is an order that does not finally dispose a case and continues the “task of adjudicating the parties’ contentions and determining their rights and liabilities as regards each other, but obviously indicates that other things remain to be done by the Court.”
“And in instances where an interlocutory order is appealed before the Court En Banc by way of a Petition for Review under Section 4(b) of Rule 8 of the Revised Rules of the Court of Tax Appeals, the Court En Banc has no jurisdiction to review said interlocutory order/s issued by the Court in Division because the Court En Banc may only review decisions, resolutions, or orders of the former in a case that has been resolved with finality and in effect already finally disposed of,” the decision added.
The decision also stated that the corporation is aware that the resolutions assailed are interlocutory because the court still proceeded with trial, until the case was submitted for decision on Nov. 16, 2017, after the issuance of a Feb. 27 resolution which denied the corporation’s omnibus motion.
The May 4 resolution, likewise, is an interlocutory order because it denied a motion for reconsideration on the Feb. 27 resolution.
Section 1, Rule 1 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, interlocutory order is among which no appeal should be taken from.
Rules of Civil Procedure Section 1, Rule 50, which is also applicable to Revised CTA Rules, states that an “the fact that the order or judgment appealed from is not appealable” is a ground for dismissal.
First Philippine Utilities is a subsidiary of First Philippine Holdings Corp., which is listed in the Philippine Stocks Exchange. — Vann Marlo Villegas
