Almost 2.5 billion liters of fuel marked tax-compliant by DOF

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have already injected chemical markers to nearly 2.5 billion liters of tax-compliant fuel, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

As of Jan. 24, the country’s two biggest tax-collection agencies both in-charge of implementing the fuel marking program marked a total 2.487 billion liters—1.787 billion liters by the BOC and 700 million liters by the BIR, Dominguez said last Saturday.

Dominguez said the oil products of the following 10 companies had paid correct excise taxes and import duties: Chevron, Filoil Energy, Insular Oil, Petron, Phoenix Petroleum, PTT, Seaoil, Shell, Unioil, and Subic-based Warbucks Industries Inc.

During the week of Jan. 18, the volume of marked fuel products breached the 2-billion liter mark, ahead of the program’s full implementation on Feb. 3.

Last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) estimated the total volume of fuel needed to be marked to reach about 15.2 billion liters—6.8 billion liters for the BOC and 8.4 billion liters for the BIR.

Under the joint fuel marking guidelines issued last year, the BOC leads fuel marking in depots, tank trucks, vessels, warehouses, and other fuel-transporting vehicles, while the BIR oversees testing in refineries, their attached depots, gasoline stations, and other retail outlets.

The fuel marking rules had granted the BOC and the BIR with deputization and police authority during field testing, such that when they found adulterated, diluted or unmarked petroleum, officers can not only seize these products but also arrest unscrupulous traders.

Fuel marking costs P0.06884 per liter, to shouldered by the government during its first year of implementation.

SGS Philippines Inc. and Switzerland-based SICPA SA had been hired as marker provider under a five-year contract, which mandated their joint venture to produce and provide the ready-to-use official marker, as well as conduct actual marking in all taxable oil products nationwide.

The fuel marking program was aimed at combating smuggling and misdeclaration to further raise the government’s revenues from oil products.