Gov’t to start implementing fuel marking system
To combat fuel smuggling, the government will finally implement early next year a fuel marking system nationwide, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said.
The BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) had already drafted the implementing rules and regulations on the rollout of fuel marking through the government’s private sector partner, the joint venture between SGS Philippines Inc. and Switzerland-based Sicpa SA, the agency said in a statement.
The two companies were given 30 days since the contract was signed on Oct. 30 to submit their master plan.
The implementing rules and regulations and the master plan were prerequisites to the implementation of the fuel marking system, the BOC said.
Based on the contract, fuel marking will cost P0.06884 a liter.
The Department of Budget and Management’s procurement service will pay the joint venture the contract price during the first year of the fuel marking program. From the second to the fifth year, the payment will come from the trust receipt created under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.
The BOC said fuel marking was one of the initiatives to be pursued in its intensified antismuggling drive.
The country’s second biggest revenue agency, the BOC, is attached to the Department of Finance.
Besides fuel marking, the BOC said it was also “targeting the full stop to the smuggling of cigarette-making machines that are used in the manufacture of fake tobacco products.”
“The BOC is expected to coordinate with its counterpart in China to inform them of this illicit scheme. To further prevent the entry of these machines into the country, the Customs chief will request Chinese officials not to allow the exportation of cigarette-making machines from China without proper and complete documentation,” it added.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and BIR officials earlier said there was a proliferation of counterfeit cigarettes as a result of the higher excise taxes slapped on the “sin” product that jacked up retail prices.
