Fuel marking collection reaches P127 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The government has collected P126.51 billion in duties and taxes from the fuel marking program as the volume of fuel with markers breached the 12 billion-liter mark, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

Based on a report from the DOF, the government marked 12.05 billion liters of fuel from September 2019, the launch of the fuel marking program, to Aug. 27.

This translated to P107.77 billion in duties and taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) as of Sept. 3.

On top of this, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) also reported P18.74 billion in oil excise taxes collected from December 2019 to Aug. 20.

Under the fuel marking program, petroleum products for domestic consumption with proof of payment of taxes are injected with markers.

The program continued even amid community quarantine measures as fuel products were exempted from movement restrictions to ensure sufficient supply of oil in the country.

Government data showed that 75 percent or 9.02 billion liters of the marked fuel are in Luzon, while 2.41 billion liters are in Mindanao. The remaining 615.73 million liters came from the Visayas.

By fuel type, 7.48 billion liters of the total volume are diesel, 4.51 billion liters are gasoline, and 61.96 million are kerosene.

Among the 20 participating companies in the program, Petron Corp. had the largest share of marked fuel amounting to 2.79 billion liters.

This was followed by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., which accounted for 2.44 billion and 1.3 billion liters, respectively.

Some 1.02 billion liters of marked fuel came from Seaoil Philippines Inc., while another 1.019 billion liters were from Chevron Philippines Inc.

Other participating companies includePhoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., Insular Oil Corp., Total Philippines Corp., Jetti Petroleum Inc., PTT Philippines Corp., Marubeni Philippines Corp., Micro Dragon Petroleum Inc., Filoil Energy Co. Inc., Warbucks Industries Corp., SL Harbor Bulk Terminal Corp., Goldenshare Commerce, High Glory Subic International Logistics Inc., Era1 Petroleum Corp., SL Gas, and Jadelink Subic Inc.

The fuel marking program seeks to curb oil smuggling and misdeclaration of petroleum products, and to increase revenue collection from taxable imported and locally refined petroleum products.

The Department of Finance estimates that the government loses as much as P40 billion annually due to oil smuggling. The DOF earlier said the government wants to plug at least half of this or P20 billion through fuel marking.