Facts: From December 1983 to March 1984, accused Chairman of the Board of the National Sugar Trading Corporation (NASUTRA) and other chief officers of the same, imported raw with a total landed cost of over one million four hundred thousand pesos without paying customs duty and sales tax and dumping said imported raw sugar into the domestic market, forcing sugar prices to go down.
Issue: Whether there was a violation of the Anti-graft law when the NASUTRA imported sugar without paying the taxes causing undue injury to the Bureau of Customs and therefore the government.
Held: The Court ruled in the negative. The Court had taken judicial notice of the fact that the NASUTRA was a government agency authorized to import raw sugar free from taxes and duties. Hence, non-payment of such taxes, which are in fact not due, could not have caused actual injury to the government, an essential element of the offense charged. Lacking the essential element of actual damage, the conclusion is that the information does not charge such offense.
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