AUYONG HIAN vs.

COURT OF TAX APPEALS

59 SCRA 110
FACTS: Motion for reconsideration filed by respondent Consolidated
Tobacco Industries of the Philippines, Inc. (CTIP) of the decision in this case
promulgated on September 12, 1974 insofar only as said decision refrains
from ruling on the matter of the refund to said respondent of the storage
charges alleged to have been advanced by it in order to secure the release
of the tobacco sold to it at the public auction sale thereof after having
been seized and confiscated by the government, the same having been
illegally imported, as ruled in the very decision in this case, and directs that

said matter be prosecuted administratively. It is prayed that such directive

be withdrawn and that the Court itself decide the issue of whether or not
movant is entitled to said refund.
ISSUE: whether or not movant is entitled to said refund.

HELD: The Government contends also that it would not be equitable to make
the Bureau of Customs hable for the refund demanded by movant, since
the auction sale netted only P1.5 M, whereas if the importation were allowed
in 1961, the Government would have realized not less than P3 M. The argument
is not persuasive, if only because the Court has precisely found the

importation to be illegal We cannot see how any consideration of inequity

can be predicated on the hypothesis that something judicially declared illegal
was legal Quite the other way around, the stand of the Government is what
appears to be inequitable, for whereas, the amount of P1.5 M paid by movant
fully covers all the items enumerated in Section 2605, including the amount
paid by movant for private storage fees, still the Government refuses to
refund movant, notwithstanding that the provisions just cited expressly
ordains that the said amount for storage fees is deductible from the
accepted bid price. In effect, the Government is trying to unjustly enrich
itself at the expense of movant. IN VIEW OF ALL THE FOREGOING, the
decision of this Court in the above-entitled case of September 12, 1974 is
hereby modified only in the sense that the administrative remedy therein

suggested for the refund of storage fees above discussed is hereby

declared

unnecessary

and

the

Collector

of

Customs

and/or

the

Commissioner of Customs are hereby ordered to refund to movant

Consolidated Tobacco Industries of the Philippines, Inc. CTIP the amount of
Eight Hundred Twenty-Three Thousand Seven Hundred Sixty-Eight Pesos and
Twenty Centavos (P823,768.20) paid by said movant to Luzon Stevedoring
Corporation