Marked fuel taxes reach P218 billion as of April

MANILA, Philippines — The government has collected P218.05 billion in duties and taxes from the implementation of the fuel marking system as of mid-April, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Monday.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said duties and taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) from marked fuel reached P190.18 billion as of April 15.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), meanwhile, collected a total of P27.87 billion in excise taxes from December 2019 up to March 18.

The taxes were collected from 22.40 billion liters of fuel marked from Sept. 4, 2019 up to April 15.

By type, the bulk of the marked fuel was diesel at 13.60 billion liters (60.73 percent of the total), followed by gasoline at 8. 68 billion liters (38.74 percent) and kerosene at 120.02 million liters (0.54 percent).

Most of the fuel marked by the government so far were in Luzon, making up 73.68 percent of the total, while 5.24 percent and 21.08 percent of the total were in Visayas and Mindanao, respectively.

Oil firms currently participating in the fuel marking program are: Petron, Shell, Unioil, Seaoil, Chevron, Phoenix, Insular Oil, Filoil, Jetti, Total/Filoil, Marubeni, PTT, Micro Dragon, Goldenshare, Warbucks, Era1, High Glory Subuc, SL Harbor, Jadelink, SL Gas, Power Fill and Petrotrade.

The fuel marking program is mandated under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) to curb oil smuggling that may result from the increase in taxes in fuel under the same law.

It is also meant to increase tax take from locally refined and imported petroleum products.

Under the program, authorities use a chemical marker to identify petroleum products that paid the right taxes.

A joint team of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will begin on April 26 field testing on all fuel products in the market.

This will cover gasoline, diesel, and kerosene found in warehouses, storage tanks, gas stations, retail outlets and transport vehicles.

Under TRAIN, petroleum products found without the official fuel marker or not containing the required level of the official fuel marker will be subjected to the payment of duties and taxes, as well as fines and penalties.

Fuel found to be diluted — containing less than 95 percent of the marker level— may also be confiscated.