Photo: Grupo Elektra

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday Jan. 19, determined that Grupo Elektra, one of the country’s leading financial and commercial services corporations, owned by businessman Ricardo Salinas, must pay 2.636 billion pesos in back taxes for a credit derived from alleged illegal deductions in the company’s annual income tax declaration for 2006.

After nearly four years since the income tax filing, the Second Chamber of the Court nullified exemptions that had previously been granted to Salinas by the Treasury (Hacienda, or SAT) at that time.

In its 2020 annual report, the company reported that it was litigating against eight tax credits for a total of 34 billion pesos.

The court resolved yesterday — in a vote of three against two — that Elektra’s deductions were inadmissible.

Since June 2020, Supreme Court Justice Margarita Ríos-Farjat presented a proposal to renege previously granted tax credits and deductions to Elektra and other corporations.

In response to the newly determined back tax declaration, Grupo Elektra on Wednesday declared the ruling a “flagrant violation of human rights” and Salinas — an avid political opponent of President Andrés Manuel López (AMLO) who has long been in the crosshairs of the president — said that he would bring the case before  international bodies.

Meanwhile, another AMLO political opponent, businessman Jorge Hank Rohn, was also informed on Wednesday that the Supreme Court had determined that his casino company, Hipódromo de Agua Caliente (HAC), must pay 1.187 billion pesos for alleged outstanding tax debts and for permits that had previously been granted by the Interior Secretariat.