Higher fuel taxes not applicable to old stocks

HIGHER fuel taxes that took effect on Monday do not apply to old stocks still to be sold to consumers, the Energy department said.

In an advisory, Energy Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido 3rd said the Oil Industry Management Bureau ( OIMB) had instructed “petroleum products stakeholders not to levy [the new tax rates] on [their] old stocks, considering that excise taxes are levied upon importation and not at the point of sale.”

The DoE, through the OIMB and in coordination with the Department of Finance (DoF), issued the advisory in light of the January 1 implementation of higher taxes

under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Act, which President Duterte signed before Christmas.

This comes as the Bureau of Internal Revenue revised withholding tax rules on compensation in pursuit of the National Internal Revenue Code amendments introduced by Train, or Republic Act 10963.

The BIR is set to release vari- ous revenue regulations on income and withholding taxes; value-added tax; excise taxes on petroleum, automobiles, mineral products, tobacco, sweetened beverages and cosmetic procedures; estate and donor’s taxes; and percentage and documentary stamp taxes.

The Energy department said it would continue to monitor oil trading in the international mar- ket and analyze its effects on local prices of petroleum products as mandated by the Oil Deregulation Law of 1998.

Oil companies raised this week the price of diesel by 65 centavos per liter; gasoline, by 20 centavos; and kerosene, by 75 centavos.

For its part, consumer group Laban Konsyumer Inc. appealed on Sunday to not impose the excise taxes on petroleum and oil companies and dealers still have ample stocks of them in their inventory.