Gov’t collects P 162.8B from fuel-marking program
The government already collected P162.8 billion in excise taxes and import duties slapped on oil as all inventory in the country has been fuel-marked, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
“Our goal is to have 100 percent of fuel oil inventory at any time marked,” Dominguez said on Friday.
The latest fuel marking data provided by Dominguez showed that 16.4 billion liters of oil products were injected with a chemical marker signifying correct tax payments during the period Sept. 4 last year to Dec. 8 this year.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected P140.7 billion in duties and other taxes on imported oil while the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) excise tax take on locally refined products amounted to P22.1 billion.
As of last week, 10.1 billion liters of diesel, 6.2 billion liters of gasoline and 87.9 million liters of kerosene were marked.
Almost three-fourths of these marked fuel or 12.2 billion liters were located in Luzon, 3.4 billion liters in Mindanao and 833.7 million liters in the Visayas.
Across the 22 oil companies taking part in the fuel marking program, the biggest volumes of tax-paid products belonged to Petron (3.8 billion liters), Shell (3.2 billion liters), Unioil (1.7 billion liters), Seaoil (1.4 billion liters), Chevron (1.3 billion liters), Phoenix (1.2 billion liters) and Insular Oil (1.1 billion liters).
Since September, the government collected P0.06884 a liter, inclusive of value-added tax, in fuel marking fees as the one-year free coverage lapsed.
Part of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, fuel marking aims to eliminate oil smuggling and misdeclaration, which in the past resulted in foregone revenue reaching nearly half of the BOC and the BIR’s combined collections from the commodity.
Last month, Dominguez said smuggling was on the decline amid increasing tax revenues generated from imported oil. —Ben O. de Vera INQ
