The Constitutional Court (TC) declared inadmissible the application for protection filed by the bank Scotiabank against the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat) for default interest generated as a result of the delay in complying with the RTF issued by the Tax Court of 8 years and that caused the debt to increase by 890%.
The votes in favor of declaring the lawsuit inadmissible came from justices Marianella Ledesma, Eloy Espinosa-Saldaña and Manuel Miranda. Meanwhile, Ernesto Blume, in a minority, voted to declare the Scotiabank part founded, the TC emphasized through a statement.
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In this regard, the tax attorney Miguel Ángel Carrillo explains that this ruling would depart from the latest criteria issued by the TC regarding Telefónica and Icatom, where it was ruled in favor of said companies due to delays in resolving by the State, which affected the right to a reasonable time.
The lawyer acknowledges in the first instance – given that the sentence will take a few days to be published – that the recent ruling of the TC at the request of Scotiabank would mark a precedent for the good of the treasury.
It is worth emphasizing that since the beginning of his administration, the Minister of Economy, Pedro Francke, stressed that to the businessmen who owe the State “that this is the time to support Peru” after suffering the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic.
Scotiabank: the legacy of Wiese Sudameris
How did the debt increase by 890%?
In 1999, the defunct Banco Wiese Sudameris was accused by Sunat of failing to comply with its tax obligations regarding the General Sales Tax (IGV), between 1997 and 1998, after it incurred in the fictitious purchase of gold to increase its tax credit. . The fine was S / 48 million.
The mediation of former Fujimori adviser Vladimiro Montesinos and that of the bank’s then general manager, Eugenio Bertini Vici, allowed the debt to be blocked, as recorded in a Vladimir video dated in November of that same year. Only with the fall of the regime was it possible to resume the case in 2003 at the request of the Tax Court. Finally, justice gave the reason to call in 2013, fourteen years after the golden setting. By then, Scotiabank had already completed the purchase of Wiese Sudameris and Banco Sudamericano, in 2006, with an investment of US $ 330 million.
Due to the delay in issuing the ruling, the debt grew 890% and stood at S / 482 million, which were paid by Scotiabank in 2013 and 2014. Since then, the Canadian capital bank tried to recover the money. In 2017, he filed an appeal before the Supreme Court with a pool of lawyers, including Lourdes Flores Nano. The magistrates agreed with Sunat. Therefore, they took the case to the TC.
In practice, that difference between 48 and 482 million that the Peruvian State, through Sunat, would have had to return, would have come out of the pocket of all Peruvians.
Blackberries among large firms in the clouds
Among the companies with millionaire tax litigation are Telefónica (S / 4,912 million); Minera Las Bambas (S / 2,091 million); Backus (S / 1,684 million); Minera Antapaccay (S / 1,382 million); Agropucala (S / 1,106 million) and Latam (S / 1,075 million); according to data collected by the Ojo Público portal.
Other mining companies that also owe the State are Nexa Resources (S / 476 million) and Minera Chinalco Perú SA (S / 342 million), as well as Minera Yanacocha (S / 314 million), Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde (S / 184 million) , Volcan Compania Minera (S / 205 million) and Buenaventura (S / 93 million pending).
The numbers
S / 1,466 million is the debt that Scotiabank maintains with the Peruvian State.
S / 4,912 million, until August, owes Telefónica.
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Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
