Argentina judge overules tax agency on Bunge

Bunge Ltd. (BG), Argentina’s second- biggest corn exporter, must be returned to the Argentine tax agency’s grain exporters’ registry, an appeals court said.

The tax agency, known as AFIP, must “refrain from suspending or excluding,” White Plains, New York-based Bunge from its registry, federal judges Ignacio Velez Funes, Luis Martinez and Roque Rebak said in a ruling dated yesterday. AFIP didn’t give Bunge enough time to defend itself against its exclusion from the registry in May, the judges said.

Exclusion from the registry means the company lost certain sales tax breaks within Argentina and had limited access to permits required to transport grain. AFIP has said Bunge underpaid about $252 million in taxes between 2007 and 2009.