THE government has so far marked 9.3 billion liters of fuel in a bid to plug tax leakages.
An infographic on fuel marking shared by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III with reporters over the weekend showed 75 percent of the marked fuel were in Luzon, 20 percent in Mindanao and 5 percent in Visayas from September 2019 to July 2.
Petron still cornered the biggest volume of marked fuel at 24.18 percent or 2.25 billion liters.
Rounding up the top 5 was Shell with 20.41 percent or 1.9 billion liters; followed by Unioil with 11.03 percent or 1.027 billion liters, Chevron with 8.83 percent or 821.61 million liters and Seaoil with 8.37 percent or 778.63 million liters.
Coming in next were Phoenix (7.97 percent or 741.41 million liters), Insular Oil (5.92 percent or 550.6 million liters), Total or Filoil (2.87 percent or 266.7 million liters), Jetti (2.82 percent or 262.13 million liters) and PTT (1.57 percent or 146.27 million liters).
At least 20 petroleum companies have participated in the fuel-marking program during the period.
The government earlier said it aims to collect P20 billion this year following the full implementation of the fuel-marking program. This is equivalent to half of the estimated P40 billion in revenue lost to oil smuggling in the country.
Under Republic Act 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, petroleum products that are refined, manufactured, or imported to the Philippines, such as but not limited to unleaded premium gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, shall be marked by an official marking agent after payment of taxes and duties.
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 petroleum products with paid excise taxes.
Spearheaded by the Department of Finance, BOC, Bureau of Internal Revenue, the fuel-marking program was officially launched on August 2019 with the intention of putting a halt to illegal importation, manufacturing and other fraudulent activities relating to the use and sale of petroleum products in the country.
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