Fuel marking nets P 126.51B in taxes

The government collected a total of P126.51 billion in import duties and excise taxes through the fuel marking program during its first year of implementation, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

On Saturday, Dominguez said the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) duty and tax take amounted to P107.77 billion from September last year until Sept. 3 this year, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P18.74 billion in excise taxes from December 2019 to Aug. 20 this year.

The collection of these taxes came from the 12.05 billion liters of oil products that were marked by the government from September last year to Aug. 27 this year, Dominguez said.

In terms of volume, the bulk of marked fuel to date were diesel at 7.48 billion liters (62.05 percent of the total; gasoline, 4.51 billion liters (37.43 percent), and kerosene, 61.96 million liters (0.51 percent).

Per geographical location of marked fuel, Luzon still cornered 75 percent (9.02 billion liters), Mindanao accounted for 20 percent (2.41 billion liters) and the Visayas, the remaining 5 percent (615.73 million liters).

Twenty oil firms are participating in the fuel marking program, with the biggest volumes injected with chemical signifying payment of the correct taxes belonging to Petron (2.79 billion liters or 23.12 percent of total); Shell (2.44 billion liters or 20.21 percent); Unioil (1.29 billion liters or 10.77 percent); Seaoil (1.02 billion liters or 8.5 percent), and Chevron (1.01 billion liters or 8.46 percent).

The 15 other companies included Phoenix (878.8 million liters); Insular Oil (764.59 million liters); Total/Filoil (396.38 million liters); Jetti (326.48 million liters); PTT (201.95 million liters); Filoil (185.55 million liters); Marubeni (183.06 million liters); Micro Dragon (135.74 million liters); Warbucks (96.42 million liters); Goldenshare (85.31 million liters); High Glory Subic (74.85 million liters); Era1 (68.7 million liters); SL Harbor (51.06 million liters); Jadelink (21.92 million liters), and SL Gas (18.37 million liters).

Since Sept. 4, oil companies shouldered the costs of fuel marking—P0.06884 a liter, inclusive of value-added tax (VAT) —on top of import duties and other levies such as excise taxes that they pay, after the one-year free coverage lapsed.

Under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, the government shouldered the fuel marking cost of P0.06884 per liter during its first year of implementation.

The fuel marking provider—the joint venture of SGS Philippines Inc. and Switzerland-based SICPA SA under a five-year contract—churned out the ready-to-use official marker and conducted actual marking. INQ