Oil tax collections hit P422.2B with fuel marking boost

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MANILA, Philippines—With fuel marking as a deterrent to smuggling, the government collected a cumulative P422.2 billion in taxes from oil beginning September 2019 up to end-April of this year.

Citing a report from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Monday (May 2) said a total of 40.8 billion liters of tax-paid oil products were already fuel marked since the program started.

The BOC, which implements the fuel marking program in depots, tank trucks, vessels, warehouses, as well as other fuel-transporting vehicles, collected P392.4 billion in duties and other taxes slapped on imported oil to date.

For its part, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which oversees fuel marking in refineries, attached depots, gasoline stations, and other retail outlets, so far generated P29.8 billion from locally refined oil.

As of April 29, the government fuel marked 24.8 billion liters of diesel, 15.8 billion liters of gasoline, as well as 207.9 million liters of kerosene.

The bulk of marked oil products were in Luzon, with 30.1 billion liters; 8.5 billion liters in Mindanao; and 2.2 billion liters in the Visayas.

At present, 28 oil firms were participating in the fuel marking program. The biggest volume of tax-paid oil belonged to Petron (9.9 billion liters), followed by Shell (7.3 billion liters), and Unioil (4.2 billion liters).

Prior to fuel marking, oil smuggling flourished in the past and deprived the government of tax revenues — estimated to be equivalent to more than half of the actual duties and taxes collected by the BOC and the BIR annually, or about P27-44 billion a year, before the program was implemented under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.

TSB