The government has so far collected over P250 billion in duties and taxes as it marked nearly P26 billion liters of petroleum products under its fuel-marking program.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue marked a total of P25.91 billion liters of fuel and have collected P252.22 billion in duties and taxes since the program was implemented in September 2019 until June this year.
For this year alone, the BOC said it has so far injected fuel markers to P8.35 billion liters of fuel equivalent to P74.72 billion in taxes collected.
As for the second quarter of this year, BOC said its tax haul under the fuel-marking program reached P37.37 billion after marking a total of P4.16 billion liters of petroleum products.
In February, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda revealed that the government lost P357 billion due to fuel smuggling from 2010 to 2019.
While fuel marking helped lower smuggling, Salceda said foregone revenues are still rising because the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, Republic Act 10963, raised taxes on fuel products in 2018.
Fuel marking makes use of a unique chemical marker that can be 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.
Under the 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.
The fuel-marking program was launched with the aim of halting illegal importation, manufacturing, and other fraudulent activities relating to the use and sale of petroleum products in the country.
