THE national government aims to collect at least P20 billion next year once the fuel marking effort is in place by January, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
During the Senate hearing of the DOF budget, Finance Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko said the amount is half the estimated P40 billion in revenue lost to oil smuggling in the country.
“We’re hoping to collect at least, by next year, P20 billion, which is half of the estimated amount of the smuggled revenue,” Tionko said. “That is our conservative [estimate].”
Fuel marking makes use of a unique chemical marker capable
of being embedded at a molecular level in petroleum products—gasoline, diesel
and kerosene—thereby
enabling authorities to test, identify and distinguish fuels being sold in the
market.
Tionko said the first fuel marking tests of marked products will begin by October. The DOF, she said, expects the full implementation of the program by January 2020.
“The team is in the process of working with the big refineries for installation of the automatic injection of the marker. In the meantime, the marking is done manually now because, for the big refineries, it will have to be through their equipment and it’s automatically injected because of the volumes,” Tionko said.
Earlier, a group of oil companies expressed full support to the fuel marking program in a bid to curb smuggling and deter revenue leakages.
The Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP) said it has been working closely with the DOF to ensure the program’s proper and effective implementation.
Members of the PIP include Chevron Philippines Inc., Isla LPG Corp., Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., PTT Philippines Corp. and Total Philippines Corp.
The DOF consulted PIP member-companies on the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) in June. Initial visits were also conducted by the DOF, along with implementing bodies Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue, and fuel-marking provider Sicpa/SGS in several PIP-member facilities.
Prior to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, the government was losing approximately P40 billion in revenues due to petroleum smuggling, according to various independent studies.
PIP said the program will address the shortfall in revenue collection provided that it is done on a level playing field.
It has consistently stressed that the program has to be implemented across all industry players in order for it to be fully effective.