Markers injected in fuel totals nearly 7.9B liters

THE government already fuel markers into nearly 7.9 billion liters of fuel since the start of program’s implementation in September last year in a bid to recover at least half of the revenue lost to oil smuggling in the country.

an infographic from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) revealed that about 7.89 billion liters of fuel were marked from September 2019 until May 28 this year.

of the total volume of marked fuel, luzon accounted for the bulk or 76 percent or 5.96 billion liters, Mindanao at 20 percent or 1.593 billion liters and Visayas at four percent or 338.27 million liters.

With 1.9 billion liters of fuel marked or cornering 24.08 percent of the total, petron Corp. led the list of 20 participating petroleum companies.

Completing the top ten are the following: pilipinas Shell petroleum Corp. with 20.30 percent of the total volume at 1.603 billion liters of fuel; Unioil petroleum philippines inc. (847.37 million liters); Chevron philippines inc. (744.64 million liters); Seaoil philippines inc. (725.69 million liters); phoenix petroleum inc. (652.63 million liters); insular oil Corp. (502.93 million liters); Jetti petroleum inc. (215.87 million liters); total and Filoil energy Co. (214.42 million liters); and, ptt philippines inc. (122.76 million liters).

the government earlier said it aims to collect p20 billion this year following the full implementation of its fuel-marking program. this is equivalent to half of the estimated p40 billion in revenues lost to oil smuggling in the country.

Under republic act 10963, or the tax reform for acceleration and inclusion law, petroleum products that are refined, manufactured or imported to the philippines such as, but not limited to unleaded premium gasoline, kerosene and diesel, shall be marked by an official marking agent after payment of taxes and duties. Fuel marking makes use of a unique chemical marker capable of being embedded at a molecular level in petroleum products—gasoline, diesel and kerosene—thereby enabling authorities to test, identify and distinguish petroleum products with paid excise taxes.

Spearheaded by the Department of Finance, BOC and the Bureau of internal revenue, the fuel-marking program was officially launched on august last year with the intention of putting a halt to illegal importation, manufacturing and other fraudulent activities relating to the use and sale of petroleum products in the country.