Fuel marking revenues reach P385 billion to date

MANILA, Philippines — The government has collected nearly P385 billion in taxes, mostly from fuel importers by marking  the petroleum products they bring into the Philippines.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III yesterday reported that the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have raised P384.79 billion through the fuel marking program as of March 10.

Customs accounted for the bulk of the amount at P354.98 billion, while the BIR accounted for the remaining P29.81 billion.

Dominguez said the collection covered the compliance of 38.33 billion liters of fuel, of which roughly 61 percent or 23.25 billion liters came in the form of diesel.

By area, the lion’s share of the volume at 28.18 billion liters was taken from industry players in Luzon. Dominguez said oil firms in Mindanao and Visayas contributed 8.05 billion liters and 2.1 billion liters, respectively, to fuel marking.

Petron Corp. stayed ahead in terms of volume  as it made up more than 24 percent at 9.3 billion liters of the marked fuel.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. came in second at 6.9 billion liters, followed by Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc.’s 3.92 billion liters, and Insular Oil Corp.’s 3.32 billion liters.

Seaoil Philippines Inc. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. followed with respective volumes of 3.06 billion liters and 2.67 billion liters.

Instituted by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, fuel marking requires regulators to inspect gas stations and oil tankers on the tax compliance of their load. If a fuel contains less than 95 percent of the marker level, its owner will be asked to pay the duties and face sanctions.

Customs looks into the shipment of fuel importers, while the BIR monitors the production of domestic refiners.