The Tax and Customs Administration may have to reimburse millions of euros charged to petrol stations and end customers over the past four years as part of the Road Assistance Contribution (MVO), which is levied on fuel and was declared illegal last year by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU). A ruling by the Administrative Arbitration Center (CAAD), dated January 5, to which Dinheiro Vivo had access, orders the state to repay Vapo Atlantic with 5.5 million euros, plus interest, confirming the 2022 decision that end users have legitimacy to the repayment of the amounts paid in the past four years – due date of the right of liquidation – since the oil companies usually pass on the CSR to the customers.
Last year, the Treasury raised more than 675 million euros with the CSR. According to statistics from the Automobile Association of Portugal (ACAP), the Portuguese vehicle fleet consists of 6.5 million light vehicles plus 500,000 heavy vehicles, making a total of seven million vehicles. If all drivers decided to challenge the payment of the charge and demand its refund, AT would have to pay an average of 96.5 euros per customer, taking into account only the amounts charged in 2022.
The largest fuel consumers, such as freight and passenger transporters, will soon receive greater scrutiny from the Tax and Customs Administration. The value of the CSR is 87 euros per thousand liters of petrol, 111 euros per thousand liters of diesel and 123 euros per ton of LPG car, but fuel invoices do not mention this rate. The National Association of Public Road Transport of Goods (ANTRAM) revealed to DV that “affiliated companies have the legitimacy to go to court and ask for a refund” and that it is currently “in contact with tax specialists to discuss the whole framework”. In a first phase, “ANTRAM employees will ask the AT to refund the CSR, and if the Tax Office refuses the return of the values, yes, the companies can appeal to the court to assert their rights”, concludes an official source of the Association.
Fee, which is considered illegal by the Court of Justice of the EU, generated more than €675 million in revenue in 2022. This year the contribution was canceled because it was absorbed by the ISP.
Specialist in tax and corporate law, Rogério M. Fernandes Ferreira, co-founder of RFF Advogados, estimates that “if every motorist submits a request per year to review the liquidation law, it would take four years to complete 28 million processes”. “Even if the AT accepted, in a simplified way, to collect and pay back every four years in one installment, there would always be about seven million processes,” he adds. For this reason, Rogério Ferreira “fears an increase in lawsuits due to the recognition of the procedural and procedural legitimacy of the actual taxpayers”.
The challenge for the CSR, founded in 2007, is not new. It all started when the Court of Justice of the EU ruled last year that it was a tax and not a contribution and as such illegal, because “revenues are generally allocated to a concessionaire of the national road network”, according to the Infraestruturas. de Portugal, “whose structure does not attest to the intention of discouraging the consumption of the main fuels for road transport”, i.e. “does not pursue specific reasons, and therefore the tax is incompatible with the” Community directive, according to the explanation from RFF Advogados.
Following this decision, Vapo Atlantic filed a lawsuit against AT in 2022, demanding the refund of 4.8 million euros charged in 2017. the four years provided for in the General Tax Act, which, according to the AT, only apply in the event of an error in the provision of services. Therefore, the amount was not refunded to the gas station. Still, Vapo went ahead with a new lawsuit that resulted in the CAAD ruling on January 5 this year, which required AT to repay 5.5 million euros charged between January and December 2018, plus compensation interest. Dinheiro Vivo asked the Ministry of Finance for clarification on whether AT would also appeal this decision, but by the end of the edition it had not yet received a response.
Legitimacy for claiming reimbursement only arises when the gas station does not pass on the reimbursement to the end consumer, emphasizes lawyer Rogério Fernandes Ferreira. If the CSR affects the price charged by the service stations, “the service stations have no right to reclaim the CSR because there would be enrichment for no reason,” he added. In general, “the oil companies reflect the contribution in the price, so there is little point in asking for a refund,” António Comprido, the secretary general of the Portuguese Association of Oil Companies (Apetro), told Dinheiro Vivo. The Tax and Customs Administration had already pointed this out last year.
Faced with the possibility of being able to demand the repayment of the CSR from the state, an official Galp Dinheiro Vivo source clarified that “Petrogal has no interest in litigating for the purpose of recovering the CSR, as far as it was – and it is passed on to its customers on a daily basis, as evidenced by all invoices issued”.
Since January 1 of this year, the CSR returns to the Tax on Petroleum Products (ISP), a government measure to circumvent the EU veto and avoid further legal proceedings.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
