Dominguez: Fuel marking in PH showing success vs oil smuggling

MANILA, Philippines—Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on Friday (Nov. 6) said rising tax revenues from fuel marking was proof that oil smuggling was on the decline.

Dominguez said that from September 2019  to last Oct. 29, a total of 14.63 billion liters of oil products were injected with a chemical marker indicating payment of correct taxes and duties.

The fuel marking program allowed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to collect P127.59 billion in import duties and other taxes in the past 13 months.

“The increase in revenue collection from fuel importation is the best indicator of the program’s success,” Dominguez said.

“Smuggling means those bringing in fuel are not paying taxes for them. Increase in collection from fuel importation would, of course, mean that those importing fuel are now declaring them and paying taxes,” Dominguez said.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P19.88 billion in excise from locally refined oil since December 2019.

The Department of Finance’s (DOF) earlier estimates had shown revenue lost to smuggling and technical smuggling, or misdeclaration of goods, had reached P26.9 billion in 2016. It was almost half of the P52.6 billion collected by the BIR and BOC from oil products that year.

To date, 9.04 billion liters of diesel, 5.52 billion liters of gasoline, as well as 76.15 million liters of kerosene were already marked.

Nearly three-fourths of these marked fuel, or 10.85 billion liters, were in Luzon, 725.04 million in the Visayas, and 3.06 billion in Mindanao.

Among the 20 oil firms participating in the fuel marking program, the largest volume of tax-paid products to date belonged to Petron (3.31 billion liters), Shell (2.94 billion liters), Unioil (1.53 billion liters), Seaoil (1.25 billion liters), Chevron (1.24 billion liters), and Phoenix (1.06 billion liters).

Since last September, when the one-year free coverage lapsed, the government collected P0.06884 per liter, inclusive of value-added tax (VAT), in fuel marking fees on top of the taxes paid for oil products.

A feature of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, fuel marking was aimed at eliminating oil smuggling and technical smuggling.

TSB