DOE finds ‘no violation’ on oil inventories’ sale; savings logged for consumers

The Department of Energy (DOE) has found ‘no violation’ on the sale of old inventories of the oil companies, as well as those on their mandated submission of data and reports to the government.

Nevertheless, the department emphasized that because of the mandate to exclude old stocks from those with excise tax imposition under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, Filipino consumers were also able to save more than R2.7 billion on costs at fuel pumps.

According to DOE Assistant Secretary Leonido J. Pulido III, even for the oil companies that were served with ‘show cause orders,” it was later established that they have fully complied with the DOE’s directives relating to the oil inventory submission and enforcement of excise taxes under the TRAIN Law.

The energy official, however, stressed that the “findings are not that conclusive yet, because we continue to validate data and reports as well as monitor their inventories.” On the savings estimate, the department qualified that R2.64 billion had been attributed to the old stocks of liquid petroleum fuels; and R58.4 million for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products.

It similarly noted that the savings were realized because the TRAIN Law in the industry had been “fairly and responsibly implemented by all the participants.”

The department further claimed that “long before the onset of the TRAIN Law’s implementation, the DOE through its Oil Industry Management Bureau, acted to safeguard consumers’ welfare.”

It cited the series of meetings it had with stakeholders, the incessant advisories to consuming public and the spot checks undertaken at gasoline stations.

That had been on top of steps relating to “data gathering and reviewing the inventory, examining the paper trail as well as issuing show-cause orders to retail outlets that raised prices before January 15,” which had been the department’s forecasted exhaustion of the average oil inventory of industry players.

Amid the controversies prior to the completion of the energy department’s completion of data and inventory validation, Cusi defended that “we implemented a lot of initiatives for the smooth implementation of the TRAIN Law, because we did not want consumers to be compromised.”

Among the DOE directives to the oil companies had been: To submit duly notarized inventory report as of December 31, 2017 – on per depot and per product basis for effective monitoring; and impose the excise taxes under TRAIN only after the December 31 stocks of finished products are fully exhausted.