Government generates P359 billion from fuel marking program

MANILA, Philippines — The government generated nearly P359 billion in taxes by marking local and imported fuel, toughening its enforcement of the anti-smuggling measure three years into the program.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez yesterday said the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raised a combined P358.61 billion in revenue through the fuel marking program since September 2019.

BOC contributed about 92 percent of the amount at P328.79 billion, while the BIR chipped in the remaining eight percent at P29.81 billion.

Dominguez said taxes collected from petroleum products covered 35.92 billion liters of fuel, the bulk of which came in the form of diesel at 21.79 billion liters. The BOC and the BIR also marked 13.95 billion liters of gasoline and 188.05 million liters of kerosene.

Industry players in Luzon accounted for roughly 74 percent of the volume at 26.44 billion liters. On the other hand, oil firms in Mindanao and Visayas made up the remainder at 7.52 billion liters and 1.97 billion liters, respectively.

Petron Corp. strengthened its position as the largest contributor in the program with 8.69 billion liters, followed by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.’s 6.54 billion liters.

Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. came next with 3.68 billion liters, while Insular Oil Corp. ranked fourth with 2.98 billion liters, according to Dominguez.

Seaoil Philippines Inc. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. rounded up the leading firms for fuel marking with a share of 2.86 billion liters and 2.61 billion liters, respectively.

Data obtained by The STAR showed that the value of smuggled goods almost tripled to a record P28.43 billion last year, from 10.63 billion in 2020. Of this amount, the BOC captured P6.72 million in illicit fuel through a variety of anti-smuggling efforts, including fuel marking.

Under the program, regulators use a chemical identifier to determine which petroleum products were paid with their required taxes. If a fuel contains less than 95 percent of the marker level, its owner will be asked to pay the duties first and then face penalties.

Similarly, regulators can order the confiscation and even forfeiture of the apprehended products, some of which can be donated to another state agency upon the approval of the finance chief.

The BOC supervises the shipments of fuel importers, while the BIR oversees the production of local refiners.