The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed a criminal complaint Thursday with the Department of Justice against Lobelle Commodities Corp. for allegedly evading more than P262 million in taxes through the misuse of import exemptions.

The complaint, which includes the company’s corporate officers, alleged tax evasion linked to palm olein oil importations during the second half of 2020.

According to the BIR, Lobelle Commodities claimed value-added tax exemptions intended for palm olein used in animal feed.

Under the National Internal Revenue Code, such exemptions apply only if the oil is used for animal consumption and is certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as unfit for human consumption.

Investigators found that Lobelle is not a manufacturing firm, making it unlikely the oil was used for feed production. The BIR also alleged the company sold the oil to entities that were similarly not engaged in animal feed manufacturing.

Furthermore, the FDA reported it had no record of any certification requests from the company for 2020.