THE government has already marked 2.487 billion liters of fuel in a bid to prevent revenue leakages from oil smuggling.
Citing the latest report from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters over the weekend that the agency has so far marked 1.787 billion liters as of January 24, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), for its part, was able to inject fuel markers on 700 million liters of fuel.
Participating companies include Unioil, Chevron, Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil, Shell, Insular Oil, Filoil Energy, PTT, Petron, as well as Warbucks Industries Corp. (Subic), the latest addition to the list.
The government earlier said all gasoline, diesel and kerosene stocks are expected to be marked completely by February 3.
The government is eyeing to collect at least P20 billion this year because of the fuel-marking program.
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.
The joint venture of Switzerland-based Sicpa SA and SGS Philippines secured the fuel-marking project.
For the first year of implementation, a fuel-marking fee of P0.06884 per liter of fuel shall be paid by the government to the fuel- marking service provider.
For the second to fifth year of implementation, the fuel-marking fee shall be paid by petroleum companies on top of duties and taxes to be collected by BOC and BIR.