Stricter fuel rules alarm auto sector

THE PHILIPPINE automotive industry has raised the alarm over the implementation of an agency order that may potentially derail the hard-earned gains made in attracting vehicle and parts manufacturers to set up shop here, and which may have grave repercussions on jobs generation, transport and logistics costs, and country’s business and investment climate.

Industry players are referring to Administrative Order No. 2015-04, which was issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in March this year.

This order required the use of cleaner fuel effective July 2015, and provides that all “new vehicles to be used or introduced into the Philippine market by January 2016 shall be equipped with Euro 4 engine and compliant with Euro 4 emission standards.”

The DENR, starting next year, will issue only to Euro 4 compliant vehicles the six- year Certificates of Conformity (COC), a requirement for initial registration of vehicles.

“This provision is not only difficult, but impossible to comply [with]. We need to allow the COCs previously issued to lapse based on period specified because these are tied to the model life,” Rommel Gutierrez, president of the Chamber of Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi), said Thursday night.

Industry players are worried over the implication that the DAO will render invalid all existing COCs.

Gutierrez said based on previous interpretation, the DENR ruling will apply only to the new models to be introduced starting 2016. Recent discussions, however, revealed that all new vehicles to be sold, including existing models that have valid COCs, are covered.