Ley 130 del 2001
Resumen
Esta ley enmienda la Sección 2 de la Ley Núm. 350 de 21 de diciembre de 1999 para clarificar su alcance. Establece que las exenciones del pago de patentes municipales para negocios ubicados en Zonas de Comercio Exterior y para la venta de petróleo crudo y sus derivados a la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica aplican exclusivamente a negocios que cumplan con los requisitos a la fecha de efectividad de esta ley, y no tienen efecto retroactivo sobre deudas notificadas o casos judiciales pendientes antes de la aprobación de las Leyes Núm. 131 y 350 de 1999.
Contenido
(No. 130)
(Approved September 12, 2001)
AN ACT
To amend Section 2 of Act No. 350 of December 21, 1999, in order to clarify its scope.
STATEMENT OF MOTIVES
During 1999, two (2) laws were approved that were addressed to excluding from the payment of municipal license fees, those businesses whose operations are located in the Foreign Trade Zones. Act No. 131 of June 17, 1999, was approved with the intent of incorporating a tax incentive to both the industrial activity and the exportation activity through a mechanism to grant an exemption from the payment of municipal license fees exclusively to the volume of business derived from the exportation of those businesses whose operations are located in the Foreign Trade Zones. At the time of promulgating Act No. 131, supra, the Legislature deemed that through the granting of an exemption from the payment of municipal license fees, exportation activities would be fostered as an economic development alternative.
Subsequently, the Legislature approved Act No. 350 of December 21, 1999, with the purpose of setting forth that companies engaged in buying and selling crude oil and its by-products are included under the payment exemption established in said Act No. 131, supra.
However, these legislative processes lacked an assessment on the position of the municipalities that would be directly affected by the exemptions created through those laws. Moreover, Act No. 350, supra, stated as part of its contents that the Act would apply "before or after its approval to all the industries engaged in the sale of crude oil and its byproducts, duly located within the demarcation of a Foreign Trade Zone, and to all the companies dedicated to selling crude oil and its derivatives to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority for the generation of electric power."
This wording lends itself to confusion, since it might be incorrectly interpreted to retroactively exempt businesses from their tax responsibilities that had already been determined and levied pursuant to the provisions of the Municipal Licenses Act. This Legislature must consign that at the time of approval of the laws referred to above, the Municipality of Guayanilla and the Municipality of Peñuelas had engaged in administrative and judicial procedures to collect the corresponding municipal license fees owed for activities related to the sale of crude oil and its by-products conducted in their municipalities. The administrative determination of debt was challenged by one of the businesses in the case subsequently denominated as Stinnes Interoil, Inc. v. Municipio de Guayanilla for the year 1992-93 to 1996-97. Furthermore, the case of Vitol, SA, Inc. v. Municipio de Guayanilla, JCO 96-0001; JCO 96-0004, has also been submitted to the courts. In this latter case, a claim is made due to a deficiency attributable to the years 1991 through 1995. In both cases, the deficiencies were duly notified during the year 1996 and the suits were brought in that same year.
The approval of Act No. 131, supra, and Act No. 350, supra, could generate confusion among some people when misconstruing that these have the retroactive effect of even including cases where there is a determination
of deficiency and even if judicial cases under the jurisdiction of the courts have been presented. We obviously believe that it is not appropriate, justified, rightful or suitable to include within said apparently retroactive effect those situations in which an administrative procedure was conducted and completed, much less those cases that are under the jurisdiction of a court. The interference a posteriori with the valid exercise of the municipal administrative power and with the valid exercise of the judicial power is completely unsustainable and it was not the intention of this Legislature to provide room for such an interpretation. See Misión Industrial de Puerto Rico v. Junta de Planificación, 98 TSPR 86. Municipalities that have duly notified tax debts are entirely entitled to recover the amount they are owed and the Legislature must not and can not undermine that power.
For the purpose of establishing the actual scope of this legal provision, it is hereby established that the approval of this Act does not affect the notices of debt of municipal license fees effected before the approval of Act No. 131, supra, and Act No. 350, supra.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF PUERTO RICO:
Section 1.- Section 2 of Act No. 350 of December 21, 1999, is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval and its provisions shall apply exclusively to all those businesses that as of the date of effectiveness of this Act are engaged in the sale of crude oil and its by-products, and are duly located within the demarcation of a Foreign Trade Zone, and to all companies engaged in the sale of crude oil and its byproducts to the Electric Power Authority for the generation of electric power."
Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 130 (H.B. 1300) of the $1^{ ext {st }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend Section 2 of Act No. 350 of December 21, 1999, in order to clarify its scope, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today 20 of December of 2004.
Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director