THE total volume of fuel marked as of Jan. 18 has topped two billion liters, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said, citing a report from the Bureau of Customs (BoC).
The total includes fuel marked by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) of around 600 million liters.
Fuel marking is an anti-smuggling measure. Fuel that has passed the various stages of tax compliance is marked by a special dye. The absence of a marker dye can be taken as prima facie evidence that no taxes were paid on the fuel.
The Department of Finance (DoF) reported that in 2019 the government marked a little over one billion liters.
Nine oil companies have participated in the program: Unioil Petroleum Philippines, Inc., Chevron Philippines, Inc., Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines Inc., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Insular Oil Corp., Filoil Energy Company, In., PTT Philippines Corp. and Petron Corp.
The volumes marked are well below initial estimates. In February 2019, authorities estimated that they can mark at least 15 billion liters of fuel products in 2019, with the BoC projecting around 6.8 billion liters of gasoline, diesel and kerosene imports while the BIR expected to mark around 8.4 billion liters processed by domestic refineries. — Beatrice M. Laforga
