Oil companies impose big-time price increase

CONSUMERS were greeted with unwelcome news from oil companies at the beginning of the year: a substantial price increase.

As the government started implementing the new excise Petron, Phoenix Petroleum, Pilipinas Shell, PTT Philippines, and Seaoil announced that they will raise their pump prices on Tuesday.

The cost of diesel and gasoline will go up by 65 centavos per liter and 20 centavos per liter, respectively, effective at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Petron, Pilipinas Shell, and Seaoil will increase the price of kerosene by 75 centavos per liter.

The Department of Energy said it will continue to monitor oil trading in the international market and analyze its effects on domestic prices of petroleum products as mandated by the Oil Deregulation Law of 1998.

But Malacañang said the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion ( Train) law will have no effect of the year.

Palace Communications chief Martin Andanar noted that based on the estimates of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, the fuel supply bought in 2017 without the Train law in effect would still last for at least a week.

“Secretary Dominguez said the increase in oil prices is not expected to take effect immediately because it will take a few days before the fuel stocks from 2017 get used up. The excise tax paid for that [2017 stocks] is for

Under the Train law, prices of diesel will increase by P2.50 per liter on the second year and P7 per liter on third year onwards. Gasoline prices, on the other hand, will increase by P7 per liter during second year and P10 per liter on the third year.

The Train law seeks to increase revenues to fund the government’s ambitious Build, Build, Build program which means spending P8.4 trillion for infrastructure projects during the six-year term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

be careful because there might be oil players who will take advantage of the situation. To be clear, the stocks from 2017 should be used up first before Train takes effect [ on oil prices]. It would be impossible that all of those stocks are all used up by January 1,” Andanar said.

“The taxes for the 2017 stocks are already paid. Therefore, these stocks should not be included in increased prices,” he added.