OIL firms announced on Monday another price increase in petroleum products, the second for the year.
Gasoline prices will go up by P1.40 per liter, diesel by P2.30 per liter and kerosene by P2 per liter.
Pilipinas Shell, PTT Philippines, Eastern Petroleum Corp., Petro Gazz, Total Philippines and Jetti said in their respective price advisories that the price adjustment takes effect at 6 a.m. of January 15.
The adjustment reflects the week-on-week movement of MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore) and foreign exchange rate. “This is not yet the effect of the fuel excise tax, but merely a reflection on the movement of international crude prices,” they said.
Under the second tranche of excise tax under the Tax Reform for
Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, an additional excise tax of P2 will be imposed per liter of diesel and gasoline, and P1 per kilogram on household liquefied petroleum gas. There will also be an additional 12-percent value-added tax, for a total of P2.24 for both diesel and gasoline, and P1.12 for LPG.
As of January 10, the number of gasoline stations already implementing higher fuel prices brought about by higher excise tax reached 444.
Of these, 369 outlets are from Petron Corp., 46 from Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and 29 from Flying V.
The Department of Energy expects bulk of the 8,600 service stations nationwide to implement the higher excise taxes between January 15 and February 1. The DOE noted that a retail outlet’s imposition of excise tax depends upon the exhaustion of the 2018 existing inventories. Only new inventories in 2019, directly imported or locally produced by refineries, are covered by the second tranche of excise tax.
Moreover, it emphasized that inventory levels vary, depending on the status of individual depots and retail outlets, and product turnover (i.e., diesel, gasoline, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas).
The DOE, through its Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB), continues to monitor retail outlets. “We are ensuring that our consumers do not become subjects of profiteering. We are issuing show-cause orders [SCOs] to the concerned retail outlets for them to explain their implementation of the second tranche of excise taxes. In addition, we are also validating the prices of their fuel products to check whether they have already imposed the second wave of excise taxes,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi.