OIL COMPANIES are raising the prices of petroleum products this week after giving consumers two straight weeks of price cuts. Gasoline will increase by P0.65 per liter (/L), diesel by P0.85/L and kerosene by P1.15/L.

Most of the companies that sent their advisories as of late afternoon on Monday said they would impose the new prices at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

The price increase for kerosene is the biggest so far for 2018, and the first time this year to exceed one peso per liter. This week’s hike is also the biggest for diesel since the second week of September. For gasoline, the increase is just 15 centavos lower than the P0.80/L increase in the second week of January this year.

In early January, the Department of Energy (DoE) projected the prices of petroleum products to include the full impact of the new excise tax rates by March or April.

Based on DoE computations, the price of gasoline starting on Jan. 1 — the start of the first trance of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) — will increase by at least P2.97/L. Diesel will increase by P2.80/L and kerosene by P0.36/L.

The price increases also include the 12% value-added tax (VAT), the DoE had said. — Victor V. Saulon

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