THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) announced it has collected P60.15 billion in duties and taxes from marking fuel with paid excise taxes in the first quarter of this year.
As of March this year, the bureau said they have already marked 4.724 billion liters of fuel under its fuel marking program aimed to curb illicit trade.
To date, the BOC has so far raked in P374.13 billion from marking 39.3 billion liters of fuel since the program started in September 2019.
Bulk of the total volume marked in the first quarter of this year is diesel at 60.51 percent, followed by gasoline (38.97 percent) and kerosene (0.52 percent).
Most of the fuel marking was done in Luzon (73.66 percent). Next to Luzon is Mindanao (20.9 percent) and Visayas (5.44 percent).
There are now 28 petroleum companies participating in the fuel marking program.
“The Bureau of Customs will continuously implement its mandate to mark petroleum products under the Fuel Marking Program to raise revenues while curbing fuel smuggling and leveling the playing field in the Philippine oil industries,” it said in a statement on Monday.
Meanwhile, the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue also seized P13.36 million worth of unmarked fuel.
The tanks of 12 retail stations and two private companies where BOC found these unmarked fuels were likewise sealed and recommended for filing criminal cases.
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.
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.