The issues raised by Shell in the newspaper advertisement are not the issues involved in the criminal case filed by the Bureau of Customs before the Department of Justice. Shell is muddling the issues by making it appear that the criminal case is the subject matter of the CTA case which are totally different from the DOJ case.

Apparently Shell is not fully aware of the details of the complaint which requires them to answer the same under oath not through PAID ADVERTISEMENT which is clearly intended to discredit the smuggling case filed against them.

The criminal complaint is simply intentional misdeclaration when Shell declared Unleaded Premium Gasoline in the entry as merely CCG despite the fact that the covering Invoice, Bill of Lading and Inward Foreign Manifest clearly describe the shipment as unleaded premium gasoline.

In addition Shell intentionally misclassified said shipment by adopting HS Code 2710.1130 that is applicable only to Tetrapropylene – used for the manufacture of detergents as additive for lubricants and as Plasticizers with 1% rate of duty but not subject to excise tax. However, Shell is not paying the 1% rate of duty but instead Shell is paying 3% rate of duty which is the rate of duty for unleaded gasoline obviously design to misled the assessment personnel of the Bureau of Customs enabling them to evade the payment of excise tax that is due to their importations.